Florida Maple

Acer floridanum

Florida Maple (Southern Sugar Maple) 

Despite being called the Florida Maple, this medium-sized deciduous tree’s range only extends through the upper half of Florida – primarily the panhandle area – yet can be found throughout all of Alabama. While its wood is not particularly useful for timber and its fruit is not a major food source for wildlife, it is popular in the southeastern United States as an ornamental shade tree, especially due to its rounded top foliage, beautiful fall colors, and its resistance to heat. The Florida Maple, also known as the Southern Sugar Maple, is also a source of maple syrup. 

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Florida Maple Acer floridanum (Chapm.) Pax  

COMMON NAMES Florida maple, southern sugar maple  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves opposite, simple, palmately three-to five-lobed with some showing blunt apices, underside white and pubescent; fruit a double samara with divergent wings; bark gray-black with scaly plates on large trees.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are opposite, simple, deciduous, and nearly round, with three to five palmate lobes; blade is 3-9 cm (1.2-3.5 in) long; apices are blunt to acute; margin is not serrate; underside is white and usually pubescent; autumn color is red, orange, or yellow. Twigs are red-brown and pubescent, with lenticels; leaf scar is V-shaped with three bundle scars. The terminal bud is ovoid and about 3 mm (0.1 in) long; scales are overlapping, red-brown, and pubescent. Flowers are polygamous; staminate and pistillate flowers grow in long, dangling, green-yellow or yellow clusters before or with the leaves. Fruit is a green to brown double samara; wings are up to 3 cm (1.2 in) long and form a 100-degree angle; fruit matures in the summer. Bark is gray-brown and smooth on small trees; bark on large trees is gray-black with scaly plates. The growth form is usually an understory tree but sometimes grows up to 18 m (60 ft).  

HABITAT Fertile, moist soils of stream banks and coves. 

NOTES Florida maple is usually an understory tree found growing with red maple, American beech, green ash, sweetgum, tulip-poplar, white oak, northern red oak, and eastern hemlock. The wood is of limited economic importance but is sometimes used for pulpwood, veneer, furniture, and flooring. There are reports of this species being tapped for syrup. The foliage is a browse for white-tailed deer, and the seed is eaten by birds and small to midsize mammals. This tree makes an attractive landscape tree due to its good form, heat tolerance, and attractive fall color.  

Acer is Latin for “maple tree” and refers to the hardness of the wood; floridanum refers to Florida or the South.