Photo: Doug McGrady, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mountain Maple

Acer spicatum

Also called moose maple, low maple, water maple.

A shade-loving small maple with upright spikes of tiny flowers in early summer and leaves that turn yellow, orange and red in fall.

Tolerates shadeFall colorWildlife valueErosion control

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–25 ft
USDA zones: 2–7
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The forest understory, the Appalachians, stream banks and rocky ground
Native range: 22 states, north and west to Minnesota and south to Georgia
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Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
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Mountain maple is a tall shrub or small tree of cool, moist northern woods and the high Appalachians, often growing as a clump of short, crooked stems. Its low branches root where they touch the ground, so an old plant can widen into a thicket. Moose, deer and snowshoe hares browse it, and it ranks among the most nutritious browse for deer. It is not well adapted to cultivation, so few nurseries offer it. On stream banks and steep hillsides it does important work holding the soil. Plant it in a naturalized corner, along a shaded stream bank or on a cool mountain slope, where it can spread into a low thicket.

Size, growth and what to expect

Mountain maple grows slowly, about a foot a year in the wild and in our growth estimator. It grows fastest between 5 and 10 years old. Expect 10 to 25 feet with a crown 10 to 20 feet wide, and up to 33 feet in the Appalachians. Stems decline at 40 to 50 years, while old clumps keep sending up new ones.

Small greenish yellow flowers stand in upright spikes 3 to 6 inches long in May and June, after the leaves are grown. The paired samaras ripen from mid-September to mid-October. The leaves turn yellow, orange and red in fall.

It grows wild from Newfoundland to Saskatchewan, south to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and northeastern Iowa, and in the mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee. In the southern Appalachians it grows at 2,800 to 5,600 feet. Kentucky lists it as endangered.

How to grow Mountain Maple

Mountain maple grows best in part shade and also takes deep shade or sun. Give it a cool, moist, acid soil that drains well, even a rocky one. Shelter it from drying wind and hot afternoon sun, since it belongs where summers stay cool. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 15 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and spread mulch over the root zone, clear of the trunk. Sow the samaras outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep in a mulched bed. Many of the seeds wait until the second spring to come up. For spring sowing, hold them damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 120 days first.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in dry spells after that. Deer, moose and rabbits browse it, so cage young trees. Where browsing is light it grows beyond a deer's reach in about 3 years. It sprouts back from the base when cut, so you can keep it as a clump or train a single trunk.

Male and female flowers grow on the same tree, the female ones near the base of each spike, so there are no male and female trees to pair. Bees carry mountain maple pollen from tree to tree, and a lone tree still sets seed, since its seeds can form without fertilization. It has no serious pests or diseases.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (9)