Maine Tree Species Fact Sheet

Common Name: Striped Maple (Moosewood, Whistlewood, Snake Bark Maple, Goose Foot Maple)
Botanical Name: Acer pensylvanicum L
Tree Type: Deciduous

Physical Description:

Growth Habit: The Striped Maple is a small, slender tree with reddish brown or dark green bark vertically and marked with thin white stripes, which turn brown after a time.  The opposite leaves are 3-lobed toward the apex, resembling a goose foot, finely toothed, pale green, 5-6 inches long and about as broad.  In the fall they become light yellow in color.  The twigs are hairless and reddish or greenish and buds are valve-like, stout, stalked with only 2 scales, and without hairs.

Height: Striped Maple rarely exceeds a height of 25 feet and a diameter of 8 inches.

Shape: The branches are slender and upright and the top is narrow and often short.

Fruit/Seed Description/Dispersal Methods: The flowers are bright yellow in slender drooping racemes opening the end of May or early June when the leaves are fully-grown.  The fruit is paired, with wings moderately divergent, fully-grown in late summer.  It has a smooth, oval depression in the seed body. The fruits ripen in September and October and are dispersed in October and November

Range Within Maine: Striped Maple is common throughout the state.  It is a shade-loving tree that is found growing with other hardwoods or occasionally with conifers on rich, moist soils or rocky slopes.  Hardy in Zones 3-7.

Distinguishing Features: The bark on the trunk is reddish brown or dark green and marked by whitish lines running lengthwise which turn brown after a period of time.

Interesting Features: The Striped Maple is of little value, except for its beauty. However, in the spring when the cambium layer is active, it is easy to make a whistle from the smaller branch sections. The wood of Striped Maple wood is porous and fine grained, and has occasionally been used by cabinet makers for inlay material

Relationship to Wildlife: The Striped Maple leaves and young shoots are a favorite food of the white tailed deer, porcupines, beavers, and moose. Ruffed grouse consume the vegetative buds. The nectar is an important food source for honeybees.

Landscape Use: Its small leaf and growth size as well as unusual striped bark and golden foliage make it a good choice for an urban ornamental.  The species grows best in cool, moist soils and does well in the understory.

Common Problems of Pests of the Tree in Maine: The Striped Maple is susceptible to gall midge, anthracnose, frost, leaf blight, tar spot, and Cristulariella leaf spots.

References:

Diseases of Trees and Shrubs.  Sinclair, Wayne A., Howard H. Lyon, and Warren T. Johnson.  Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of Cornell University Press, 1987.

Domtar. Domtar Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2000: www.domtar.com/arbre/english/p_erpen.htm

Eastern Trees, Peterson Field Guides.  Petrides, George A. Houghton Mifflin Company.  1988.

Forest Trees of Maine, Twelfth Edition.  Maine Forest Service/Department of Conservation.  1995

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, 5^th Edition.  Dirr, Michael A.  Publishing L.L.C. 1998.

Plant Identification: A. pensylvanicum
http://nsr.uvm.edu/www/mac/plant-id/angiosperm/aceraceae/A.pensylvanicum.bud.html

United States Dept. of Agriculture: Silvics of North America
www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/acepen

Web of Species, courtesy of Web Species at Wellesley, Jiasuey and Allaive, Wellesley College, 1998.  www.wellesley.edu/Activites/homepage/web/Species/pmaplesstriped.html

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