The American maple is a plant that grows quickly and is unpretentious to living conditions. Ash-leaved maple was widely used for landscaping, but today it is used less and less for these purposes.
American or ash-leaved maple has a spreading shape and can reach 25 m in height. However, the habitat strongly influences the appearance of the Neklen: in forests with undisturbed soil and a moderately humid climate, it looks like an upright tree. In places protected from light, maple branches take on a weeping shape, but usually the plant branches strongly and rarely reaches a height of 12-15 meters.
Description
The trunk does not exceed 1 m in diameter and has a brown-brown bark with longitudinal cracks. Young shoots can be green, olive, purple and reddish-brown with a waxy coating. American maple wood is yellowish green with a white, friable heart. The leaves of this plant are complex, pinnate. They consist of 3-5 leaves and very much resemble ash leaves, for which, in fact, the plant received such a name. Young leaves are tomentose, later becoming naked.
Flowers without petals. Male stamens have reddish large anthers and hang down on slender 6 cm pedicels. Female pistillates are collected in clusters and have short, thick, 6–8-millimeter pedicels, elongating up to 2–3 cm with fruits. The color on the tree appears before the foliage blooms, when the March-April air is still warm enough. Male plants are covered with color earlier than female ones. Due to too early flowering, pollination is carried out by the wind.
Maple fruits are lionfish with almost parallel wings. When ripe, they acquire a light gray color and are dispersed by the wind at a distance of up to 50 m from the parent tree. The seeds are distinguished by good vitality in water and germinate even before they hit the soil.
Peculiarities
The American maple tree can live up to 100 years. In addition, it is quite unpretentious to soil conditions and is resistant to air pollution, and it also grows very quickly. It is due to the latter feature that it was widely used for landscaping, but recently it is recommended to completely stop planting this plant, since it increasingly dominates in floodplain forests, and in parks and squares destroys asphalt and causes allergies with an abundance of pollen.
At home - in North America, maple is traditionally used as a sugar plant. And the early spring pollen of this plant allows you to get a special box-elder honey. Ash-leaved maple has light, soft, fragile and fine-grained wood. It is rarely used in production, mainly household items, containers and inexpensive furniture are made.
