General: Maple Family (Aceraceae). Bigleaf maple is a native, long-lived medium to large sized deciduous tree that often grows to eighty feet tall. The leaves are simple, opposite, and very large between fifteen to thirty centimeters wide and almost as long (Farrar 1995). The flowers are yellow, fragrant, and produced in noddling ...more ↓
General: Maple Family (Aceraceae). Bigleaf maple is a native, long-lived medium to large sized deciduous tree that often grows to eighty feet tall. The leaves are simple, opposite, and very large between fifteen to thirty centimeters wide and almost as long (Farrar 1995). The flowers are yellow, fragrant, and produced in noddling racemes appearing with the leaves in April or May. The fruit is paired, 2.5 - 4 centimeters long, and brown with stiff yellowish hair. The bark is smooth and gray-brown on young stems, becoming red-brown and deeply fissured, and broken into scales on the surface (Preston 1989).
Distribution: Acer macrophyllum is distributed around the coast region of southeastern Alaska, on the West Side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada from British Columbia through most of California. For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
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