Box Elder Tree

Acer negundo ssp. californicum California Box-elder by davidhofmann08

When people walk by my yard, they often stop to ask me the name of a shrub, tree or perennial. I believe that seeing something growing in my yard has encouraged others to plant it.

One tree that people have asked me about is one that I did not plant. It grows near the stream at the edge of my property and looks suspiciously like poison ivy with its three leaves. I have even heard this tree referred to as the poison ivy tree though it has many other more common names. While the leaves may resemble poison ivy, the tree can have 5 or 7 leaves but rarely 11 leaves; so if you count the leaves you can feel confident that this isn’t poison ivy. And the tree has a profuse number of hanging seeds that look like a maple tree’s seeds. This native North American tree is really in the maple or Acer family. The Latin name is Acer negundo and is referred to in my area as a Box Elder tree, Boxelder Maple or Maple Ash. In Canada it is known as the Manitoba Maple.

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