Photo: Crusier, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Striped Maple

Acer pensylvanicum

Also called moosewood, goosefoot maple, snakebark maple, whistlewood.

A small maple for deep, cool shade, with green bark striped in white and big three-lobed leaves that turn bright yellow in fall.

Tolerates shadeFall colorWildlife valueWinter interest

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 15–35 ft
USDA zones: 3–7
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The forest understory, the Appalachians and rich moist slopes
Native range: 21 states, north and west to Minnesota and south to Georgia
List all 21
Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Striped maple is the only snakebark maple native to North America, a small understory tree of cool, shady woods in the Northeast and the Appalachians. Young trunks and branches are green with bold white stripes, which fade to reddish brown on old trunks. The leaves, up to 7 inches long, end in three short lobes said to look like a goose's foot. Moose and deer often browse it, which gave it the name moosewood. It is very tolerant of shade. Plant it under tall hardwoods on a cool, north-facing slope, where its striped stems stand out all winter.

Size, growth and what to expect

Striped maple grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. In deep shade it may add only a foot in ten years, but a tree released into good light has grown over 3 feet a year. Expect 15 to 35 feet with a crown 12 to 20 feet wide. It may live to be 100.

Yellow-green bells, a quarter inch across, hang in strings 4 to 6 inches long in May and June, after the leaves are nearly grown. The winged seeds ripen in September and October and fall through November. The leaves turn bright yellow in fall. Ruffed grouse eat some of the seeds, and beavers eat the bark.

It grows wild from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario, Michigan and eastern Minnesota. Southward it reaches Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and it follows the mountains to northern Georgia. In the southern Appalachians it grows at 2,500 to 4,500 feet. Ohio, at the edge of its range, lists it as endangered.

How to grow Striped Maple

Striped maple wants part shade or full shade and a cool, moist, acid soil that drains well. Keep it out of full sun, where the leaves scorch. It does best where summers stay cool, and it struggles in hot southern summers. 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. Pick the samaras while the wings are brown but the seed is still green. Sow them outdoors in fall under a quarter inch of soil, since seed left under fallen leaves waits a year. For spring, 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. Rabbits and deer browse young striped maples, so cage each one for its first several years. Beyond dead wood, it needs no pruning.

Most striped maples carry only male or only female flowers in a given year, and a tree can switch, so plant several if you want seed. Trees can flower when as young as 11 years and as small as 3 feet tall. Verticillium wilt, a soil-borne disease that kills the trees it attacks, is probably its most serious enemy. Leaf spots, cankers and aphids can also show up.

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

Sources (9)