Aceraceae - Maple Family, Allergenic Plants, Edible Plants, Green Arizona Flowers, Inconspicuous Arizona Flowers, Inconspicuous Flowers, Mountain Plants, Native Wildflowers and Plants, Perennials, Shrubs, Spring Blooming Plants, Trees, Yellow Arizona Flowers

Acer grandidentatum – Bigtooth Maple

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (leaves)

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (yellow autumn leaf)

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (yellow fall foliage)

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (orange fall foliage)

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (red fall foliage)

Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple (orange autumn leaves)

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Acer grandidentatum

Common Names: Bigtooth Maple, Canyon Maple, Big-toothed Maple, Uvalde Big-tooth Maple, Western Sugar Maple

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial, Deciduous

Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Mountain. This plant grows in sunny to partly shady mountain canyons in pine-oak or coniferous forests. It is easy to spot in the autumn when it has its colorful fall foliage.

Flower Color: Inconspicuous (yellowish green). It blooms as the leaves emerge.

Flowering Season: Spring

Height: Up to 50 feet (15 m) tall

Description: The petalless, wind-pollinated flowers are in drooping bunches and have long stalks and yellow-green, cuplike perianths. The female flowers are followed by green drying to tan, u-shaped, winged seed pairs known as double samaras that can "helicopter" through the air to aid in dispersal. The leaves have reddish stalks, heart-shaped leaf bases, and are green above, fuzzy pale green below, rounded in outline, and palmately lobed with 3 or sometimes 5 main lobes that have a few irregular large teeth or small lobes. In the autumn, the leaves turn bright yellow, orange, or red before they fall, and because they are somewhat translucent, the autumn leaves appear especially colorful when sunlight shines through them. The young twigs are brown. The bark is gray-brown and smooth to scaly. The trunk is erect to leaning. This plant's size depends on available moisture, and it is a tree in moist canyon bottoms and a large shrub on drier canyon slopes.

The similar Rocky Mountain Maple (Acer glabrum) is a smaller tree and has sometimes trifoliate leaves with more numerous, much smaller, sharply pointed teeth.

Special Characteristics

Allergenic – The flower pollen is a moderate allergen.

Edible – The sweet sap can be tapped to make maple syrup.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Sapindales
Family: Aceraceae – Maple family
Genus: Acer L. – maple
Species: Acer grandidentatum Nutt. – bigtooth maple

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map
Bigtooth Maples (Acer grandidentatum) in Autumn – The Firefly Forest