VINE MAPLE BIG LEAF MAPLE FULL

The light and airy look is something that I’m drawn to a lot, even though I’ve been on the dark side lately, too. These trees feed the forest, the wildlife, and our souls. A study published in 2000 determined that nutrient levels under Douglas fir trees (valuable for lumber) are higher when Vine maples are present as an understory tree, compared to stands without Vine maples. Coastal aboriginal people boiled the bark of the roots to make a tea for colds or burned the wood to charcoal, mixed it with water, and drank it to combat dysentery and polio. The Coast Salish people sometimes used Vine maple wood for bows or for fishing net frames other tribes used it for snowshoes and cradle frames.

Besides the enjoyment humans get from Vine maples as forest and landscape trees, deer and elk browse the tender shoots and leaves. But I don’t have to tell you that no plant is useless. In fact, it’s deemed a nuisance because dense thickets of the shrubby trees can impede loggers’ progress toward their goal: the big trees. The Latin name, Acre circinatum, tells us it’s a maple (Acer) with something circular going on (circinatum).Īs you might guess, this small tree is not considered valuable to loggers. The leaves are held flat to absorb light, as if a flock of paper-thin, green saucers has come to rest on thin, wavy branches, beseeching for light deep in the forest. There are usually 7-11 serrated lobes, each ending in a delicate point. Indentations lend a certain grace, not unlike on their Japanese maple cousins. I’m a detail person, so the first thing I noticed about Vine maples was the attractive shape of their leaves: overall they’re generously round like little moons. The dark evergreens towering over them are Western redcedars and Douglas firs. November winds blow pale Vine maple leaves off the trees. Imagine a Japanese maple rather than a Sugar maple and you’re on the right track to picturing a Vine maple.ġ1.

VINE MAPLE BIG LEAF MAPLE FULL

And it’s nearest relative? That would be the Full moon or Amu maple (Acer japonicum), native to Japan and southern Korea. The Vine maple, Acer circinatum, ranges only from the southwest corner of British Columbia to northern California, from the coast to about 200 miles inland. Maples have been with us for 60 million years, probably originating in eastern Asia, evolving over time into about 150 different species, all native to the Northern hemisphere. Confronted with a thicket of them, it’s understandable how someone decided to call them Vine maples.

The branches can get very long and droopy, sometimes rooting if they touch the ground. It often has multiple, slender trunks, or a single trunk that twists and turns, looking for more light. Looking down again, this time with a Lensbaby, in May.Ĭontrary to its name, the Vine maple isn’t a vine and it isn’t the upright, lollipop-shaped tree we usually associate with the word ‘maple.’ This maple doesn’t get very tall.

Vine maple big leaf maple