Trees with Don Leopold - black maple

[@lynnglidewell7367]

I think I have one which has sprung to life just Spring 2024. It is on my fence line so I assume the Birds planted it in their droppings. It's just a small seedling about 4 inches tall at this point but the leaves are exactly as shown in this video. Three pointed lobes with two rounded ones at the bottom. The leaves on stem are parallel not alternating. I think I got lucky! I'll move it to a better location in late Fall.

[@chrisjanssens4333]

One of the main differences is black maples have very hairy underside on the leaves, where sugar maples do not. I have a large black maple growing between 2 large sugar maples and they look very different and anyone can immediately see the difference. It should be considered it's own species and not a sub species.

[@jamiehart6318]

I planted some of these on a very steep south facing river bluff with limestone soil in the midwest, where there's existing canopy. Very tough conditions. They've done much better than everything else i've tried and I think i've tried just about every tree you could try here(except hackberry, mulberry, walnut, and elm which is what existing canopy already is). Trying to diversify the woods a little more. Going to try some redbuds this year. Any other suggestions? Black maple is very hard to source. Fall color is more a striking buttery yellow followed by a light kind of peachy orange. Very little reds. Color changes late too, more in line with the oaks.

[@guillaumelafleche9477]

I planted black maple last year and I'm eager to see it grow. I try to add diversity to my forest, too! I like to research what's native to my corner of the continent and maintain a wishlist, but finding trees or seeds is becoming more difficult outside the common species. Also added sugar maple and shagbark hickory last year and the ultimate would be true American chestnut.

[@Birdlab]

We have several black maple, from mature to twigs, also on a steep (west) facing hillside with average to alkaline soil with similar species present in zone 5 MI. Ours is a beautiful bright clear to golden yellow in the fall and tends to drop leaves before the sugars, which we also have present. We find that the young specimens have ‘soft’ leaves which are a bit fuzzy almost like flannel but have not heard of this characteristic so aren’t 100% the are true species.

[@YouTuber-ep5xx]

I purchased a black maple a few years ago from Knecht's in Northfield, MN. It is doing fine, as is sugar maple, on my 6 acres here on zone 4/5 line in So. Minn. Have 85 tree species growing here. Perhaps you might try hemlock? Maybe create an opening and try some sun lovers. Yellow buckeye? Chestnut oak? Black locust? Osage orange? Quaking apsen? Larch? Eastern redcedar? Balsam poplar? Yellow birch? Sycamore? Beech? Baldcypress? Dawn redwood? Hickories are wonderful trees... Staghorn sumac makes a nice small tree, too..... And cottonwood is a fantastic tree, IMO!

[@ronmaciejewski4855]

I'm trying to grow one of these from seed. I was mailed 40 seeds from a friend in WV to southeast MI and I'm hoping that I can just get one of them to germinate.

[@crittercosner2877]

Looks like someone likes Ginseng.