ILLINOIS PLANT INFORMATION NETWORK ILPIN INFORMATION ON Acer saccharinum CLASS: DICOTYLEDENAE ORDER: SAPINDALES FAMILY: ACERACEAE SCIENTIFIC NAME: Acer saccharinum AUTHORITY: L. COMMON NAMES: RIVER MAPLE SILVER MAPLE SOFT MAPLE WHITE MAPLE SYNONOMY: None PLANTS CODE: ACSA2 NATURAL COMMUNITIES: FOREST FLOODPLAIN FOREST WET-MESIC WET LISTED CHARACTERISTIC PRIMARY GLADE LIMESTONE CULTURAL RESTORATION FOREST SAF FOREST COVER TYPE: CENTRAL Other Central Types listed River Birch - Sycamore Silver Maple - American Elm NORTHERN Other Northern types listed Black Ash - American Elm - Red Maple SOUTHERN Bottomland listed Cottonwood Sugarberry - American Elm - Green Ash Sycamore - Sweetgum - American Elm NATURAL DIVISION: Wisconsin Driftless listed Rock River Hill Country Freeport Oregon listed Northeastern Morainal Morainal Chicago Lake Plain Winnebago listed Grand Prairie Grand Prairie Springfield Western Green River Lowland listed Upper Miss. and Ill. R. Bottomlands Illinois River Mississippi River listed Western Forest Prairie Galesburg Carlinville listed Middle Mississippi Border Glaciated Driftless listed Southern Till Plain Effingham Plain Mt. Vernon Hill Country listed Wabash Border Bottomlands Southern Uplands Vermilion River listed Lower Miss. R. Bottomlands Northern Southern listed Coastal Plain Bottomlands listed COUNTIES: ADAMS ALEXANDER BOND BOONE BROWN BUREAU CALHOUN CARROLL CASS CHAMPAIGN CHRISTIAN CLARK CLAY CLINTON COLES COOK CRAWFORD CUMBERLAND DEKALB DEWITT DOUGLAS DUPAGE EDGAR EDWARDS EFFINGHAM FAYETTE FORD FRANKLIN FULTON GALLATIN GREENE GRUNDY HAMILTON HANCOCK HARDIN HENDERSON HENRY IROQUOIS JACKSON JASPER JEFFERSON JERSEY JO DAVIESS JOHNSON KANE KANKAKEE KENDALL KNOX LAKE LASALLE LAWRENCE LEE LIVINGSTON LOGAN MCDONOUGH MCHENRY MCLEAN MACON MACOUPIN MADISON MARION MARSHALL MASON MASSAC MENARD MERCER MONROE MONTGOMERY MORGAN MOULTRIE OGLE PEORIA PERRY PIATT PIKE POPE PULASKI PUTNAM RANDOLPH RICHLAND ROCK ISLAND ST. CLAIR SALINE SANGAMON SCHUYLER SCOTT SHELBY STARK STEPHENSON TAZEWELL UNION VERMILION WABASH WARREN WASHINGTON WAYNE WHITE WHITESIDE WILL WILLIAMSON WINNEBAGO WOODFORD GROWTH FORM: Dicot-woody TAXONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS: ROOTS: Primary LEAF ARRANGEMENT: Opposite LEAF TYPE: Simple LEAF MARGIN: Lobed (palmately) LEAF VENATION: Pinnate LEAF SHAPE: Orbicular INFLORESCENCE: Umbel FLOWER MEROUS: 5 FLOWER STRUCTURE: Incomplete (no petals) FLOWER COLOR: Yellow Green FLOWER PLACEMENT: Perigynous FRUIT: Samara DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC COMMENTS: Leaves are usually cleft more than halfway to bases; silvery white below, and sharply toothed; staminate flowers in capitate clusters. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: ORIGIN: Native POPULATION DYNAMICS: STATE STATUS: Not listed FEDERAL STATUS: Not listed COMMONNESS: Common ENDEMIC: NOT-ENDEMIC BIOLOGIC: HABIT: Tree LIFE CYCLE: Perennial REPRODUCTION: Sexual FLOWERING PERIOD: MONTH BEGINNING- 2 MONTH END- 4 TROPHIC STATUS: Autotrophic C02 FIXATION: C3 SEX: Perfect Unisexual -monoecious -dioecious ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS: No data entered ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS COMMENTS: Species is found on gob piles in northern Illinois. FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: MAJOR DISPERSAL AGENTS: WIND MAJOR POLLINATION AGENT: INSECT HUMAN RELATIONSHIP DATA: EDIBLE: Yes SHOWY FLOWERS: YES AMOUNT: Low LANDSCAPING: YES AMOUNT: High HUMAN FACTOR COMMENTS: Brittle branches are easily damaged by storms. Sap can be used to make syrup, but yield is less than sugar maple. WILDLIFE AND LIVESTOCK INFORMATION: FOOD VALUE: DEER VALUE: Good - Leaves Stems UPLAND GAME VALUE: Good - Fruit Stems Buds WATERFOWL VALUE: Unknown SMALL NON-GAME BIRD VALUE: Good - Fruit Flowers SMALL MAMMAL VALUE: Good - Fruit AQUATIC MAMMAL VALUE: Unknown FISH VALUE: Unknown COVER VALUE: DEER: No data WATERFOWL: No data SMALL MAMMAL: No data FISH: No data SMALL BIRD: Good UPLAND GAME: No data AQUATIC MAMMAL: No data WILDLIFE COMMENTS: Terrestrial furbearers (especially squirrels) eat seeds, flowers, bark, and twigs. This is an excellent den tree for squirrels and woodpeckers. Regarding small non-game bird food value, this pertains especially to evening grosbeaks. LIVESTOCK PALATABILITY DATA: No data entered REVEGETATION PLANTINGS: ESTABLISHMENT REQUIREMENTS: Easy SHORT-TERM REVEGETATION POTENTIAL: Poor LONG-TERM REVEGETATION POTENTIAL: Good WEEDINESS: Non-weedy SEED AVAILABILITY: Good PROCUREMENT COMMENTS: Seed company numbers: 2,4,14,15,17,19,20,23,24,25,27,28,29,31,32,35,36,37, 39,40,52. PROPAGATION COMMENTS: Form - bare root, seedlings; readily adapts to a variety of soil conditions. REFERENCES: Jones, G. N. 1963. Flora of Illinois. Third ed. American Midland Naturalist Monograph 7. University of Notre Dame, Indiana. 401 pp. Steyermark, J. A. 1963. Flora of Missouri. Iowa State University Press, Ames. 1725 pp. Gleason, H. A., and A. Cronquist. 1963. Manual of vascular plants of north- eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York. 810 pp. Fernald, M. L. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. 8th ed. American Book Co., New York. 1632 pp. Swink, F., and G. S. Wilhelm. 1979. Plants of the Chicago region. Third ed. The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois. 922 pp. Anon. 1981. Illinois plants for habitat restoration. Illinois Department of Conservation, Mining Program. Springfield, Illinois. 61 pp. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and Canada. Society of American Foresters (SAF), Washington, D.C., 148 pp. Schwegman, J. E., G. D. Fell, M. Hutchison, G. Paulson, W. M. Shepherd, and J. White. 1973. Comprehensive plan for the Illinois Nature Preserves System. Part 2 - The Natural Divisions of Illinois. Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, Springfield. 32 pp., plus map. White, J., and M. H. Madany. 1978. Classification of natural communities in Illinois. Pages 309-405 in J. White, ed., Illinois natural areas inventory technical report. Vol. 1. Survey methods and results. Illinois Natural Areas Inventory, Urbana. Miller, R. B., and L. R. Tehon. 1929. The native and naturalized trees of Illinois. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 18: 1-340. Mohlenbrock, R. H. 1980. Forest trees of Illinois. Third ed. Illinois Department of Conservation, Division of Forestry, Springfield. 331 pp. Downton, W. J. S. 1975. The occurrence of C4 photosynthesis among plants. Photosynthetica 9(1): 96-105. Meeuse, B. J. D. 1961. The story of pollination. Ronald Press Company, New York. 243 pp. Grimm, W. C. 1950. The trees of Pennsylvania. Stackpole and Heck, New York and Harrisburg. 363 pp. END OF DATA FOR SPECIES Acer saccharinum ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ILPIN was developed by Louis Iverson*, with data compiled by David Ketzner and Jeanne Karnes Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign, IL 61820 *currently employed by USDA Forest Service, 359 Main Rd., Delaware, OH 43015