Acer floridanum (Chapm.) Pax

A deciduous tree typically to 18 m. Bark pale grey when young, turning darker and fissuring at the base with age. Branchlets glabrous to tomentose, greenish at first, turning light red to brown, with small, pale lenticels. Buds ovoid, with five to nine pairs of imbricate scales. Leaves broadly pentagonal to orbicular in outline, base cordate to rounded, three- to five-lobed, 3.8–9 cm long, lobes apically acute or obtuse, margins entire to undulate, often with a single lobe on either side in apical third, upper surface dark green, pubescent at first, lower surface pale green, glabrous or pubescent; petiole 1.5–4 cm long, glabrous, or becoming so, often grooved, broadest at base; autumn colours yellow to scarlet. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, corymbose, erect, 10–30 flowered. Flowers yellowish green, 5-merous, usually dioecious, pedicels long and slender, pubescent, sepals connate, ciliate, petals absent, stamens seven to eight, inserted in the middle of the nectar disc. Samaras 1.6 to 3 cm long, wings spreading acutely. Nutlets rounded. Flowering April to May, with unfolding leaves, fruiting in October (Sargent 1965; Elias 1980).

Distribution  United States Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia

Habitat Moist rich soils, along river or stream banks and in wet woodlands. Compared with A. saccharum it is more likely to be an understory species.

USDA Hardiness Zone 5

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Prior to the 1940s Florida Maple was referred to as Acer floridanum, but in recent decades, where treated at specific rank, the given name has often been A. barbatum Michx. (e.g. Duncan & Duncan 1988; Elias 1980; Lance 2004). This situation occurred as a result of a re-examination of material by M.L. Fernald in preparation for his (then) forthcoming Gray’s Manual (1950), as elucidated by Ward (2004). Ward (2004) details that Michaux’s ‘A. barbatum’ material belongs to a number of species, and the material that was lectotypified by Edward Murray to A. saccharum in particular. A. barbatum Michx. therefore belongs in the synonymy of that species, and A. floridanum is the correct name for Florida Maple.