![]() ![]() And third, as ecologically foundational, long-lived trees, maples are of interest in and of themselves, and so there is an existing body of research addressing their natural history, ecology, and evolution. Second, maples have a very wide geographic distribution, unlike some temperate genera confined to only certain continents or regions. The genus consists of 120 to 160 species depending on the taxonomic authority, with half of these growing at the Arboretum. The genus makes for a good model for several reasons. In doing so, I treat maples as a model for other kinds of temperate trees. Specifically, I ask how maple species differ in their response to dry soil conditions and to the shorter, warmer winters that will likely become typical in the Northern Hemisphere. In my research at the Arnold Arboretum, I make use of publicly available data, existing scholarship, and, most importantly, the Arboretum’s collection of over six hundred maple trees (which is nationally accredited by the Plant Collections Network) to predict how the genus will respond to climate change. ![]() As the climate changes, maples, like other forest species adapted to the temperate north, face an uncertain future. But contemporary, human-caused climate change is rapidly reconfiguring this climate to a warmer one with less regular and more extreme events of rain or snow, making freakish droughts, early arrivals of spring, and warm winters more common. The extant maples have adapted, by and large, to climatically temperate conditions: warm summers and cold winters, with occasional dry periods interspersed with regular precipitation. ![]() Their evolution as a genus occurred through geographical radiation across the Northern Hemisphere, interspersed by extinctions and range retractions when climatic conditions became inhospitable.Ĭontemporary maple diversity is the result of this history and represents only a single, still snapshot from a larger, unspooling reel. Like oaks, willows, and birches, among many other genera, the maples as we know them today differentiated from their nearest relatives at a time when the global climate was hotter and wetter than today’s and have since survived a long period of cooling and drying, including many ice ages. Today, the maple genus ( Acer) extends its reach from Guatemala to Canada, the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia to the Amur Valley. They are essentially winged seeds that twirl to the ground when ripe, much to the delight of children who get caught in a shower of “whirlybirds.For all of human history and many millions of years before it began, the forests of the temperate Northern Hemisphere have been populated by maples. Another thing that all maples have in common is their fruit, called samaras. They are subject to wood rot and landowners have to pay the high cost of tree removal or risk collapse. Quick growth results in brittle branches that break and fall easily, often causing property damage. Landscapers use these trees to get quick results, but they may become a problem in the landscape as they age. Their rapid growth results in a soft wood. Soft maples include a wide variety of trees, such as red and silver maples. They are dull green on top and a lighter color underneath. Hard maples usually have leaves with moderate indentations. The lobes on some maples are mere indentations in the leaves, while others have lobes so deeply divided that a single leaf can look like a cluster of individual, thin leaves. All maples have leaves divided into three, five, or seven lobes. These trees are important to the lumber industry and include black maples and sugar maples, known for their superior quality syrup. Hard maples grow very slowly and live a long time. One distinction between the two maple tree types is the rate of growth. To make maple tree identification a little easier, let's begin by dividing them into two main groups: hard and soft maples. With all of the variations, it's hard to pinpoint a few obvious features that make a tree a maple. Maple trees are members of the genus Acer, which includes a lot of variety in size, shape, color, and growth habit. ![]()
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