Boxelder
Acer negundo
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Boxelder grows throughout most of the contiguous US, as well as in central southern Canada, the mountains of Mexico, and Guatemala. Its range has been extended through naturalization in Maine, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, southeastern Washington, and eastern Oregon. Boxelder grows best on moist sites and is resistant to climate extremes, droughts, and brief flooding. It can tolerate a wide variety of soils but prefers well-drained soil. It is moderately shade tolerant.
Fruit: A double samara with an angle of less than 60 degrees. They mature from September to October and remain on the tree well into winter, after which the two samaras will separate and fall from the tree.
Flowers: A yellow-green flower arranged in corymbs. They appear between March and May with or before the leaves.
Uses: The wood isn't typically desired, but it is used locally in boxes, cheap furniture, and woodenware. The tree is planted in some rural communities and in shelterbelts for its hardiness and fast growth, but it's generally regarded as a "dirty tree" and is rarely planted as an ornamental in cities.
Ethnobotany: Plains Indians would use the sap as a source of syrup, but it isn't as sweet as syrup made from sugar maples.
Importance to wildlife: The tree provides winter cover for wildlife. Birds and squirrels eat the seeds, and mule deer and white-tailed deer use it as browse.
The full boxelder tree. Its size and form is variable, but large boxelders grow to 70 feet tall and the shrub form, most common in the Great Plains region, grows to about 25 feet tall. The trunk often divides close to the ground into crooked limbs. Notice the crooked trunk in this photo.
The bark of a boxelder. When young the bark is light gray and smooth, but it darkens and furrows with age.
A leaf with 5 leaflets, taken from below. Leaves can have 3-5 leaflets, or occasionally 7-9.
A leaf with 3 leaflets, taken from above. Leaflets are highly variable, but consistently 7-12 cm, light green and glabrous above, and paler and usually hairy below. They are irregularly and coarsely toothed, or slightly lobed.
A terminal bud and petioles on a boxelder. Buds are wooly with white hairs, blue, purple, or deep red beneath the hairs, with 1-2 scale pairs visible. Terminal buds are closely flanked by the uppermost pair of lateral buds, which would be visible in this photo if not for the petioles covering the lateral buds.
A lateral bud not covered by a petiole. Lateral buds are plump and often nearly glabrous.
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