Flowers before the leaves

Silver Maple is dioecious, having distinct female and male flowers on the same tree.  These red ones are female, while the males are yellowish-green.  Both are without petals and appear before the leaves, which will emerge a few weeks later.

A closer look at that tree Baby conquered this morning:

A fast-growing, city-tolerant North American native of the floodplain community, Acer saccharinum may reach heights of over 120 feet under favorable conditions.  It had been "planted in immense numbers in the northern US as a shade and street tree," wrote Arnold Arboretum Director Charles Sprague Sargent in The Sylva of North America (The Riverside Press 1891), but by the 1890's it was less frequently planted because of certain disagreeable horticultural qualities that actually led to its eventually being placed on a list of trees forbidden to be planted in some municipalities.

From the "Checklist of Cultivated Maples IV" in the Journal of Arboriculture (October 1982):

Silver Maple has the reputation of being "weak-wooded" [a consequence of rapid growth, its being the fastest-growing American maple] and thus subject to breakage in storms.  Its roots invade water lines and septic tanks.  Its seedlings [which require no dormant period and germinate as soon as they fall to the ground] sprout abundantly in lawns, gutters and gardens.

It's true.  Just ask our Roto-Rooter man.

Comments

[goomp]

Amazing to see those buds and flowers while winter is still here by the calendar. No sign of them here 60 miles NNE from your location.