Other Name: Soft Maple.
Medium to large tree up to
100 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 5 feet; crown usually broadly rounded.
Gray or silvery, smooth at
first, becoming loose and scaly or even somewhat shaggy when old.
Slender,
reddish‑brown, smooth, often curving upward; leaf scars opposite,
U‑shaped, with 3‑7 bundle traces.
More or less rounded,
reddisb‑brown, smooth to finely hairy, up to Y8 inch long.
Opposite, simple; blades up
to 8 inches long, nearly as broad, deeply palmately fivelobed, the edges of the
leaves sharply toothed, pale green and smooth on the upper surface, silverywhite
and usually smooth on the lower surface, except in the leaf axils; leafstalks
smooth, up to 5 inches long, often reddish.
Staminate and pistillate
borne separately, but sometimes on the same tree, in dense clusters, greenish-yellow,
opening in February and March before the leaves begin to unfold.
Borne in pairs, composed of
a curved wing with a seed at the base, green or yellow, up to 3 inches long.
Wet soil
Sliver Maple are in all areas of the park. Along the river most trees with roots in the water are sycamores and behind them are stands of silver maple
The deeply lobed leaves which are silvery white on the flower surface
best distinguish this tree. The leaf picture is taken from the underside to show the lighter
coloration.
Tree species facts from Robert Mohlenbrock , Forest Trees of Illinois , 1996