boxelder

(Acer negundo var. negundo)

Conservation Status
boxelder (var. negundo)
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

FAC - Facultative

     
  Midwest

FAC - Facultative

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

FAC - Facultative

     
           
 
Description
 
 

Boxelder (var. negundo) is a fast-growing deciduous tree rising on a single trunk from a shallow, fibrous root system. It may form a taproot in deep soils. Large individuals can reach over 100 in height and 59 in diameter at breast height, though in Minnesota mature trees are usually 30 to 50 tall and up to 36 in diameter. It is prone to disease (including leaf anthracnose, bark canker, and trunk heart rot) making it moderately short-lived, usually living about 60 years, though older individual may survive up to 100 years.

The trunk is usually crooked and often divided close to the ground into several major limbs. In forests the trunk is sometimes long and straight. The crown is broad and uneven. The branches are long, spreading, crooked, and irregularly branched. They are brittle and subject to breakage. Exposed trees usually have broken tops. Sprouts are often produced from damaged areas on the lower trunk.

The bark on young trees is thin, light grayish-brown, and finely scaly. It has raised, buff or orange lenticels. On mature trees the bark is thicker, light brown to gray, and cut with shallow, narrow furrows and narrow, rounded, intersecting ridges. The ridges intersect every 6 inches or less. Orange lenticels are visible in the furrows. On older trees the bark is deeply furrowed and the ridges break horizontally into squarish blocks.

The twigs are hairless and moderately stout with prominent, raised bumps (lenticels). They are round in cross section; have white, solid, homogenous pith; and have a strong, disagreeable odor when broken. When young they are heavily covered with a whitish, powdery bloom (glaucous) that easily rubs off. As they age the bloom wears off. Older twigs are bright green or olive green and shiny. The leaf scars are small and broadly U-shaped. They have 3 bundle scars. The leaf scar wraps around the stem, the raised tips almost meeting those of the opposite leaf scar. The sap of a freshly cut twig is clear.

Terminal buds are egg-shaped, to 5 16 long, and bluntly pointed at the tip. They usually have 4, sometimes 2, reddish, distinctly overlapping scales. The scales are densely covered with fine, whitish, appressed hairs. Lateral buds are slightly smaller and are tightly pressed against the twig. They are concealed by the base of the leaf stalk, and are not visible until the leaf has fallen off.

The leaves are deciduous, opposite, and 2¾ to 9 long. They are on 1 to 4 long leaf stalks. The leaf stalks are usually hairless, occasionally short-hairy.

Two types of leaves are produced: early leaves, also called preformed leaves; and late leaves, also called neoformed leaves. Early leaves are fully formed and overwinter in the bud. They are the first leaves to mature in the spring. They are produced on short (preformed) shoots and at the base of long (partially preformed, partially neoformed) shoots. They are divided into only 3 leaflets and are broadly triangular egg-shaped in outline. Late leaves are formed at the end of long shoots. They are oblong egg-shaped in outline and are pinnately divided into usually 5, sometimes 7, rarely 9, leaflets.

The leaflets are 2 to 4 long, ¾ to 2 wide, and oblong to egg-shaped. They are tapered or rounded at the base and taper to a sharp point at the tip with straight or concave sides along the tip. The terminal leaflet is sometimes inversely egg-shaped and sometimes 3-lobed. The upper surface is light green and usually hairy when young, becoming hairless or almost hairless at maturity. The lower surface is pale grayish-green and usually hairy when young, becoming sparsely hairy, especially along the veins, or almost hairless at maturity. The margins are usually coarsely and irregularly toothed, with 3 to 5 teeth per side, sometimes untoothed. The lateral leaves often have 1 or 2 shallow lobes. In autumn the leaves turn yellow.

Male and female flowers are borne on separate trees, rarely on the same tree. They appear before the leaves or during leaf development in mid-April to late May. The male inflorescence is a tight, umbrella-like bundle (fascicle) of 10 to 20 flowers produced from a lateral bud on the twig. The fascicle droops at the end of a greenish-yellow, hairy, thread-like, to 1¾ long flower stalk. The male flower has a yellowish-green calyx with 5 minute lobes, no petals, and 3 to 6 stamens.

The female inflorescence is a short, unbranched cluster (raceme) produced from buds at or near the branch tips. The raceme droops at the end of a greenish-yellow, hairy, thread-like, about long flower stalk. It is subtended by a leaf. The female flower has a yellowish-green calyx with 3 to 5 minute lobes, no petals, and a single, deeply lobed style with 2 stigmas.

The fruit is a pair of dry seed cases with papery wings attached (double samara). They occur in clusters that droop downward from long stalks. Each double samara is in the shape of an inverted V, connected at the top with the wings spreading apart at less than a 90° angle. Individual samaras (or keys) are 1¼ to 2 long. The seed cases are elongated and wrinkled. They are slightly connected to each other when young and separated at maturity. The wings are typically ¾ to 1½ long. The keys are usually hairless, green initially, turning yellowish green when the seeds are mature, then brown in the fall. They mature late August to late September and fall throughout the winter.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

30 to 50

 
     
 

Record

 
 

The champion boxelder in Minnesota is on private property near Minneapolis, in Hennepin County. In 2018 it was measured at 50 tall and 163 in circumference (52 in diameter).

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

Reddish

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

Saplings usually have just 3 leaflets, which may cause them to be misidentified as western poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii). That plant, however, has alternate leaves.

Boxelder (Acer negundo var. interius) twigs are densely covered with short, soft, velvety hairs. The leaf undersides usually have tufts of hairs in the vein axils. The fruits are sometimes short-hairy. It is a western variety and is uncommon to rare in Minnesota.

 
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Wet or moist. Floodplains, lakeshores, streambanks, upland hardwood forests. Rich soil.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

Mid-April to late May

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

Boxelder pouchgall mite (Aceria negundi) causes pouch-like galls on boxelder leaves.

Maple twig borer moth (Proteoteras aesculana) larva often kill the twigs that they bore into. Their presence can be recognized by noting dead and drooping leaves at the end of a twig.

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

4, 7, 24, 29, 30.

 
  8/22/2022      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common and widespread

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants) / Angiospermae (flowering plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Rosanae  
 

Order

Sapindales (soapberries, cashews, mahoganies, and allies)  
 

Family

Sapindaceae (soapberry)  
  Subfamily Hippocastanoideae  
  Tribe Acereae  
 

Genus

Acer (maples)  
  Section Negundo  
  Series Negundo  
  Species Acer negundo (boxelder)  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Acer negundo var. variegatum

Negundo aceroides

Negundo negundo

Rulac negundo

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

ash-leaved maple

ashleaf maple

ash-leaf maple

box elder

boxelder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Bundle scar

Tiny raised area within a leaf scar, formed from the broken end of a vascular bundle.

 

Fascicle

A small bundle or cluster, often sheathed at the base, as with pine needles.

 

Glaucous

Pale green or bluish gray due to a whitish, powdery or waxy film, as on a plum or a grape.

 

Lenticel

A corky, round or stripe-like, usually raised, pore-like opening in bark that allows for gas exchange.

 

Pinnate

On a compound leaf, having the leaflets arranged on opposite sides of a common stalk. On a bryophyte, having branches evenly arranged on opposite sides of a stem.

 

Pith

The spongy cells in the center of the stem.

 

Raceme

An unbranched, elongated inflorescence with stalked flowers. The flowers mature from the bottom up.

 

Samara

A dry fruit consisting of a seed attached to a papery wing; one seeded in Elms and Ashes, two-seeded in Maples.

 
 
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Honey Fae (Farah)

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
 

Luciearl

 
 

Box elder bugs found on Box Elder tree

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
 

Randy

 
 

Box elder sapling. Freeborn County, MN, June 2017

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
 

Tree

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
 

Shoot

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
           
 

Young Bark

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
           
 

Twig

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
 

Leaves

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
           
 

Male Flowers

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
 

Female Flowers

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)   boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
    boxelder (var. negundo)      
           
 

Expanding Buds

 
    boxelder (var. negundo)      

 

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Slideshows
 
 
     
     

 

slideshow

       
 
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Visitor Sightings
 
           
 

Report a sighting of this plant.

 
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  Honey Fae (Farah)
6/12/2022

Location: Minnesota

boxelder (var. negundo)  
  Honey Fae (Farah)
5/1/2022

Location: Minnesota

boxelder (var. negundo)  
  Honey Fae (Farah)
4/10/2022

Location: Minnesota

boxelder (var. negundo)  
  Luciearl
9/17/2018

Location: Ramsey County (Taylor Park)

Box elder bugs found on Box Elder tree

boxelder (var. negundo)  
  Randy
June, 2017

Location: Freeborn County, MN

Box elder sapling.

boxelder (var. negundo)  
           
 
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Created 12/31/2013

Last Updated:

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