Acer macrophyllum

Oregon Maple ( Acer macrophyllum )

The Oregon Maple ( Acer macrophyllum ), Big Leaf maple also called, is a species of the genus of the maples (Acer). The home of this deciduous tree is located in western North America.

Description

The Oregon maple grows as starkwüchsiger tree and plant height reaches up to 30, in some cases up to 36 meters with trunk diameters of up to 1.3 meters. In the dense forests growing it forms a slender crown and is up to about half of the tribe of highly fishy. In the free state it forms a broad, loose crown. Often it grows even more stocky. The bark of young trees is reddish brown to brownish green with pink lenticels, later starting out mostly dark gray and in gefelderte strips, where the furrows are dark orange. The young branches are very thick compared with other species of maple and initially dark green with small white lenticels.

The leaves are the largest of all species of maple. The leaf blade is usually five-lobed, rarely siebenlappig and 19 to 27 times 25 to 35 cm tall. The huge blade is very thin and sits at a 20 to 30 centimeters long yellow-green to red stem. The middle lobe is self -lobed and has a few blunt teeth; the other lobes are almost unperforated and mostly smooth edges. The upper leaf surface is dark green to dark yellowish green and shiny. On the underside of the leaf is slightly lighter and has underarm beards on along the midrib. The autumn color is at the natural sites gorgeous colorful orange with shades of yellow to brown. In Central Europe, the foliage in autumn colors on the other hand usually only matte brown.

The Oregon maple is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ), that is, each tree specimen simultaneously developed male and female flowers. An overhanging, 10 to 25 centimeters long, paniculate inflorescences, the flowers appear after the leaves appear in May. The bright greenish- yellow flowers are about 3 mm in size.

The fruits are winged and with approximately orthogonal spreading the wings twisted together standing. The fruit is about 5 times 2 inches tall. The Samennüßchen are hairy thick and bristly.

Dissemination

The home of the Oregon maple is located in western North America near the Pacific coast; in north-south direction, the rich deposits from the southeastern part of Alaska through the western part of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon to northern California.

In Central Europe, the Oregon maple has been relatively rarely planted. At a young age he is still sensitive to frost.

Use

The wood is used in furniture production, among other things, for example, solid maple table tops, as well as for carving and turnery. The tree also provides an excellent firewood.

Young branches are similar to willow rods for wattle. The tree sap can be used similarly to that of the sugar maple, but is not quite as sugary. The leaves are used in the kitchen for wrapping to baking foods such as fruit or root vegetables. The yellow nectar -containing buds are also edible.

System

The first description by the German - Canadian botanist Frederick Traugott Pursh was published in 1813/14. It has been described with deposits in the U.S. state of Washington, a variety Acer macrophyllum var kimballi Harrar.

Within the genus of the maples (Acer) of the Oregon maple in the section Lithocarpa, serial macrophylla is provided.