Tree Talk: Striped Maple

This time on Tree Talk, we discuss a short tree with a long list of common names. Striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum), also known as moosewood, snakebark maple, goosefoot maple, and whistlewood, is a small understory specialist of the Appalachians and northern woods. It is pretty innocuous in normal conditions but like other shade-tolerant trees, if striped maple is left in the stand during a timber harvest it can rapidly outcompete desired regeneration upon receiving extra sunlight. If there is also no fire and too many deer, the result can be a dense wall of striped maple brush that holds low economic and ecological value.
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Recorded on 6/6/22 in George Washington & Jefferson National Forest, Bath County Virginia, by Allyson "goosefoot" Davis.