MAPLE TREE LEAF TYPE FREE

One of the most desirable BC species for turning. Figured forms of maple include bird’s eye, fiddle-back, blister and curly maple.īigleaf maple – working properties ProcessĪ cutting angle of 20˚ assists the finishing operation when curly grain or other irregular grain is present. Other: Occasionally pieces have highly figured, wavy grain. Quartersawn lumber or quarter-sliced veneer: occasionally curly and wavy. Plainsawn lumber or rotary-cut veneer: faint growth ring, occasionally birdseye, curly, and wavy. The wood has straight or sometimes curly or wavy grain, medium to occasionally coarse grain, and has an even texture. The annual growth rings are indistinct as it is a diffuse-porous wood. Light-coloured heartwood and little contrast between heartwood and sapwood. Usually light reddish-brown, but sometimes darker. Grain patterns are unsurpassed in some bigleaf maple trees. Occasionally, pieces have highly figured, wavy grain-these include bird’s eye, fiddle-back, blister and curly maple.īigleaf maple – physical properties Density (kg/m3) The fruit consists of two winged seeds joined at the base, which are three to six centimetres long. Small greenish-yellow flowers, about three millimetres across, appear in clusters at the ends of twigs in the spring. They are shiny dark green on top and paler underneath and turn yellow in the fall. They are deeply five-lobed and have a few blunt, wavy teeth.

The leaves are the largest of any maple in Canada, measuring 15 to 30 centimetres across. The species lives an average of 200 years, with some up to 300 years. The bark is greyish-brown and shallowly grooved when the tree is older. In the open, it has a broad crown supported by a few large spreading limbs.

MAPLE TREE LEAF TYPE FREE

In the forest, it develops a narrow crown that is supported by a stem free of branches for half its length. Its fine-grained, pale brown wood is commercially valuable for making musical instruments and furniture veneer.īigleaf maple occurs in Whiskeytown NRA, Redwood N&SP, Oregon Caves NM&P, and Crater Lake NP.Bigleaf maple, also known as Pacific Coast maple or western maple, is the largest maple tree in Canada, reaching 36 metres in height on good sites.The bigleaf maple can produce tiny canopy roots that grow into epiphyte-derived canopy soil to help nourish the tree itself.Like some other maples, bigleaf maple produces sap that can be boiled down to a mineral-rich and delicious maple syrup.Pacific Northwest tribes have used bigleaf maple for medicinal purposes, for making wooden canoe paddles, and more.These seeds “helicopter” down on windy days in the late fall. The wings on the seeds are large, up to 5 cm (2 in) long, and shaped in an upside-down V. One tree contains both male and female flowers, making it monoecious, which means “single house.” Insects pollinate the flowers in the next few weeks, which eventually produce large, brownish, double-winged seeds (samaras). A cluster of pendent yellowish-green flowers (raceme) emerges in April–May just as the new leaves are popping open. Reproduction begins at about 10 years for bigleaf maples. It grows largest in the moist soils of river bottoms and at the base of foothills, but tolerates dry sites as well.īigleaf maple leaves and flowers. Habitat and Distributionīigleaf maple grows in low to mid elevations in coastal ranges from Alaska through California, and largely west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada crests. In a streamside mix of hardwood and conifer trees, a mature bigleaf maple will be the one most likely draped in mosses, lichens, and ferns. And it stands out in a crowd when it comes to decor. The bigleaf maple is the tallest maple in North America, reaching over 30 m (100 ft) in some areas. Giant leaves are not its only distinctive feature. The young bark is smooth and grayish-brown, eventually becoming red-brown and deeply fissured with age. Its leaves and branches grow in an opposite formation, and spread into a domed canopy at maturity. These goliath photosynthesizers measure up to 30 cm (12 in) wide and almost as long, a singular feature that distinguishes the bigleaf maple from others in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae (though some still place it in Aceraceae). True to its name, it dangles unusually large, 5-lobed, palmate (palm-shaped) leaves from its branches. The bigleaf maple ( Acer macrophyllum), also known as the Oregon maple, is a deciduous, long-lived tree native to the Pacific Northwest.

Maple tree leaf type