Ashleaf Maple
Acer negundo
Soapberry family (Sapindaceae)
Least concern
The stories related to this plant are still being edited.
Themes
Crown jewel in the Haren Botanic Garden.
The sap contains a reasonable quantity of sugar and can be used as a refreshing drink or be concentrated into a syrup, which is used as a sweetener on many foods. The inner bark can be dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc. or be added to cereal flours when making bread, cakes etc. It can also be boiled until the sugar crystallizes. Self-sown seedlings, gathered in early spring, are eaten fresh or dried for later use. The seeds are boiled, then eaten hot.
A tea made from the inner bark is used as an emetic.
The leaves are used as a packing material for e.g. apples, rootcrops etc to help preserve them. The wood is soft, flimsy, light and close grained. It has little commercial value but it is used for boxes, cheap furniture, pulp, fuel etc. Large trunk burls or burrs have been used to make drums.
In many parts of the world this plant is potentially invasive.
Details
| Description: | Tree, short lived, fast growing tree, up to 20 m in height, dioecious. |
|---|---|
| Distributions: | North america; the tree has become naturalised in a number of european countries |
| Habitat: | Forests, coastal dunes, marshes and along water courses. |
| Year cycle: | Perennial (polycarpic decidous) |
| Hardiness: | Colder than -4 f (very hardy) |
| Flowering period: | Maart - april |
| Flower color: | Brown, green, red |
| Notes on flowers: | The flowers are unisexual with male and female flowers on separate plants (dioecious); male flowers in tufts of 12 to 16 individual flowers with red anthers; 6-12 female flowers form a loose, approximately 5 cm long, pendulent panicle. |
| Fruiting period: | Juli - december |
| Fruit color: | Brown |
| Notes on fruits: | A samara; the fruits are bare whilst the brown papery wings are approximately 2 cm long and form an acute angle with each other. |
| At its best: | September - oktober |