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.
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