Trees with Don Leopold - boxelder

[@charlesrhodes3760]

I saw him imagine if poison ivy could get that big and he stepped back in fear.

[@oscarflip8561]

I like many others used to dislike this tree, it typically has irregular growth, doesn’t have great fall color typically, and is fairly short lived for a maple. But… after reading Doug Tallamy’s works I changed my mind, it does host quite a bit of insects which some people will instantly complain about, but 96% of terrestrial birds can only rear their young on insects, so it is very ecologically important for birds and other insect eating animals. Not necessarily great ornamentally but there are some cultivars now that have better fall color, there’s one on my street that actually does get a nice orange/ yellow mixture of fall color every year and has a nice shape(couldn’t tell you what the cultivar is), but most importantly it is very important for wildlife.

[@GoneCarnivore]

Deer love to eat those leaves

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

The wood from this tree can sometimes develop beautiful pinks and reds. Bowl turners love this wood.

[@Trakehner20]

arboristBlairGlenn I wish I knew some, we have a huge bran h that came down...we might take the whole tree, I think it's dead.

[@ericwanderweg8525]

I don’t understand the hate for this tree. It’s native. Although it has lousy timber form it has beautiful wood. It makes good fall/spring firewood and seasons quickly.

[@jackprier7727]

a fovorite tree of Audubon Magazine, it has nooks and crannies for nests and bugs for food--a birds' paradise.

[@scarethechildrens]

Sensation Boxelder is a cultivar with great fall color.

[@Doom2pro]

That and the damn bugs...

[@KreigsMarine2]

these are some of the worst looking trees we have in town. And the bugs that come with them......suck, they usually make it through winter by hiding in the walls of your house

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

The bugs should not be considered a pest. They feed primarily upon the syrup of boxelder trees, and the trees attract birds for their nooks and crannys for nesting and boxelder bugs. Let them overwinter in your house, and release them in the spring. Simpler than squishing them.

[@lunardust201]

Thank you for these videos, great learning

[@jameslaubacker2171]

Good tree for a tree house... Fast growing tree... Like a weed...

[@samalibya2032]

How to get rid of it????

[@yvespetit]

In Canada it is also called Manitoba maple. People who don't like this species call it a weed. It grows fast and has a weak wood but it is a good shade tree...its only virtue.

[@fourcubed47]

I had an ex-girlfriend, who's father LOVED boxelders, for some reason. He planted dozens of them around his camp on the river. As an arborist, I HATE them, as since they most always grow at an angle, they are difficult to climb for takedowns. I much prefer to climb one of the other invasive maples, the Norway Maples to take down. There is an interesting cultivar at the Arnold Arboretum called 'Pink Flamingo' that is quite interesting with pink-fringed leaves that I might even consider planting in the landscape as a curiosity. Otherwise, nope, one doesn't plant boxelders in one's landscape.

[@jameslaubacker2171]

Good. Treehouse tree.... Fast growing.. like a weed...

[@treemands]

Verticillium wilt generally takes them out or makes them unsightly and hazardous.

[@GoneCarnivore]

Forgot to mention they are beautiful trees

[@robertparel2001]

A Maple Tree.🍁

[@cavy95]

I just learned I’m allergic to it.

[@Trakehner20]

How long would you say they live? We have a very large one, but it might be dead. Has barbed wire going through part of trunk.

[@YouTuber-ep5xx]

Around us in Minnesota, they tend to die at around 40 years.

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

@@KZbinr-ep5xx I live in Red Deer Alberta in Canada and they generally live 60 to 125 years here, there is an old female in the corner on an army vet's property that was planted shortly after red deer became a town. That would make it around 100 years old, and it has a trunk girth at ground level of 4 and a half feet(give or take a few inches) and it still produces samara fruits. There is another area, next to a creek in the middle of the city where in a thick Manitoba Maple grove, wild hops and Virginia Creeper germinated in the soil filled cranny in the wood of the maple, and the canopy is a thick tangle of vines. The drupes of creeper berries and hops beautifully contrast each other. I should point our that these plants would never typically grow with each other naturally, and they have formed something called a novel ecosystem. The bark of the maple and creeper was covered in mosses, lichens(some which are typically only found on stone in our area) and liverworts of all kinds, so clearly nature has begun to settle itself down again.

[@YouTuber-ep5xx]

@@noahrafter-lanigan2409 Yeah, I saw a big one like that in a yard in DC area. In my area, the box elders tend to grow wild only, no one plants them, and the wild ones seem to grow alongside wetlands, which may lead to earlier demise. They don't have great form, but the young shoots are colorful and they put on a show in spring... Thanks for sharing.

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

@@KZbinr-ep5xx I go around red deer with a roll of thick wire that I usually find while looking around the outsides of dumpsters for scrap metal that I can get cash for at Bulldog wreck yard in the Industrial park. Whenever I go there, I plant manitoba maples along the fencing of the yard. The workers don't care; the wood is brittle, so you can just snap it off where you need it trimmed and they susually leave it to grow into the fence. You shouldn't climb them, because the branches can barely support themselves, let alone human weight. I spoke to one of the managers about it, and he said that he remembers breaking his leg when he climbed a manitoba maple as as a kid, so he wants the same thing to happen to the thieves that would attempt to climb it. It just absorbs the chain link and becomes part of the fence at that point lol. I use the aforementioned wire to reshape the young manitoba maples in more upright forms across the city. I do it as a favor to the plants and as a favor to the landowners. They have confronted me when I was bending a branch that would clearly break off in a rough storm and damage the house when mature, and when I explained my motive, the guy smiled and let me do my thing. People are confusing sometimes lol.

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

@@KZbinr-ep5xx my favourite part about the maples In the spring is when the samara fruits are purple and reddish tan, halfway between mature and immature. Beautifully designed.

[@rnr4204]

My hatred for these trees runs deep. I kill any on my property that I find. Only a fool would actually plant one of these damned things. Ugly, prone to rot, attracts bugs by the tens of thousands, hard to kill off...

[@booboomiddleton8381]

And part of nature. Deal with it.

[@popcorngirl14]

A most hateful tree.

[@Trakehner20]

Hateful how? I'm curious...