Florida 4-H Forest Ecology

Identifying Characteristics

Size/Form:	Silver maple is a medium-sized tree, usually 60 to 80 feet in height, with a 2 to 3 foot diameter trunk, but is capable of reaching heights of 115 feet. Branches are divergent, forming a wide-spreading round crown. Roots are shallow and are frequently near the surface of the soil.
Leaves:	Leaves are simple, opposite, and deciduous. They are palmate with 5 to 7 lobes and 6 to 8 inches long. The leaf margins are coarsely serrate. Leaves are pale green above and silvery-white below. Petioles are red or reddish-green and about 4 inches long.
Twigs:	The twigs are brittle, slender, shiny, and reddish-brown. The pith is homogeneous.
Bark:	The bark is silvery, thin and smooth, becoming broken into long, loose, scaly plates as the tree matures.
Flowers:	This tree is dioecious, with greenish to reddish-colored flowers growing in dense clusters.
Fruit:	The fruit of the silver maple is a wrinkled, reddish-brown double samara with divergent wings 1 to 3 inches long. They occur in clusters on slender stalks.
Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List: There are two other maples on our list. Florida maple has similarly-sized leaves, but the lobes are much wider and the underside of the leaf isn't silver. Red maple has smaller, more narrow leaves, and the underside isn't silver.