Acer glabrum is a species of maple native to western North America, from southeastern Alaska, British Columbia and western Alberta, east to western Nebraska, and south through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Colorado to California, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.
Description
Acer glabrum is a small
tree growing to tall, exceptionally , with a trunk around in diameter, exceptionally around .
The
leaves are broad, three-lobed (rarely five-lobed),
variable in the depth of lobing, occasionally so deeply lobed as to be divided into three leaflets; the lobes have an acute apex and a coarsely serrated margin. The
are produced in
of five to ten, yellowish-green, at the same time as the new leaves in spring. The
fruit is a samara or winged seed, which develops in fused pairs at an angle of less than 45° when mature, though some varieties spread out to 90°.
[Plants of British Columbia: Acer glabrum ][Jepson Flora Project: Acer glabrum var. diffusum, var. greenei, var. torreyi]
Varieties
There are four to six varieties, some of them treated by some authors at the higher rank of
subspecies:
[USDA Plants Profile: Acer glabrum]
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Acer glabrum var. glabrum (syn. subsp. glabrum; Rocky Mountain maple)– Rocky Mountains, Montana to New Mexico
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Acer glabrum var. diffusum (Greene) Smiley (syn. subsp. diffusum (Greene) A.E.Murray; Rocky Mountain maple) – eastern California, Nevada, Utah
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Acer glabrum var. douglasii (Hook.) Dippel (syn. subsp. douglasii (Hook.) Wesm.; Douglas maple, also incorrectly Acer circinatum
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Acer glabrum var. greenei Keller ( Greene's maple) – endemic-central California
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Acer glabrum var. neomexicanum (Greene) Kearney & Peebles (syn. subsp. neomexicanum (Greene) A.E.Murray; New Mexico maple) – New Mexico
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Acer glabrum var. torreyi (Greene) Smiley (syn. subsp. torreyi (Greene) A.E.Murray; Torrey maple) – Endemism-Northern California
Distribution and habitat
Acer glabrum is plentiful in many parts of the Rocky Mountains, Cascade Mountains, Olympic Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, often growing with ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and quaking aspen.[USDA Forestry Service, Fire Effects Information: Acer glabrum] It can be found in dry rocky areas.
Ecology
It tends to be found in brush fields arising from Fire ecology sites. Conifers tend to replace it in well-forested areas.
Uses
Native Americans utilized the strong stems for snowshoe frames, bows, and other applications.[Vestal, Paul A. 1952 The Ethnobotany of the Ramah Navaho. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 40(4):1-94 (p. 36)]
Further reading
External links
