{"id":154,"date":"2012-03-20T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T17:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/?p=154"},"modified":"2012-03-20T13:31:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T17:31:36","slug":"silver-maple-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/2012\/03\/20\/silver-maple-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver maple flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silver maple (Acer saccharinum<\/em>) was in full bloom a few weeks ago.\u00a0 All trees bloom.\u00a0\u00a0We are sometimes unaware of this because forest trees are usually not\u00a0as showy as dogwoods and Ohio buckeye.\u00a0\u00a0Forest trees\u00a0flower early, some as early as February.\u00a0 They are wind pollinated, so flowers are mostly anthers that release pollen and stigmas that catch it.\u00a0 No need for colorful petals.\u00a0 The flowers are borne up in the branches and hard to see until you get an eye for them.<\/p>\n

Counting on wind to make the connection is chancy, so lots of pollen is produced.\u00a0 Tree pollen in the spring is a big source of hay-fever.<\/p>\n

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Silver maple flowers. Female cluster on top, male on the bottom<\/p><\/div>\n

Flower clusters are either male or female on the same tree.\u00a0 Male clusters tend to bloom earlier\u00a0closer to the main trunk, with females out toward the tips, likely to increase the chances for outcrossing.<\/p>\n

Silver maple is our most common street tree in Indianapolis.\u00a0 They used to be favored because they grow quickly.\u00a0 Because of this quick growth, they tend to be weak trees that are often brought down in ice or wind storms, so they have fallen out of favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Silver maple has nice gray bark with a sculptural quality<\/p><\/div>\n

In their natural habitat of riparian corridors along creeks and rivers, growing quickly to beat floods is an advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m wondering if red maple gets its common name from its flowers.\u00a0 They are striking red this year.\u00a0 Silver maple must come from the silver undersurfaces of the leaves.\u00a0 You can easily see these on a windy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) was in full bloom a few weeks ago.\u00a0 All trees bloom.\u00a0\u00a0We are sometimes unaware of this because forest trees are usually not\u00a0as showy as dogwoods and Ohio buckeye.\u00a0\u00a0Forest trees\u00a0flower early, some as early as February.\u00a0 They … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}