There's another native smaller maple with similar leaf shape, Chalk Maple (Acer leucoderme), that grows in the piedmont. Unlike A. floridanum, which has white leaf undersides, A. leucoderme has yellowish green leaf undersides. They differ in preferred habitat, with A. floridanum more common in moist soils, and A. leucoderme in drier, upland soils. Both are smaller than A. saccharum, and some can rival their larger relative for brilliant autumn color.
Yup, chalk maple! I had been told it did not naturally occur in Wake Co, being more in the slate belts and circumneutral soils in the Uwharries, but the NC Vascular Plants site does list it for Wake. Easy to miss and assume it's southern sugar maple (Acer floridanum), which is very common in the Piedmont. Acer saccharum, true sugar maple, is mostly in our mountain counties, and some western Piedmont.
Nicely done. Informative
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There's another native smaller maple with similar leaf shape, Chalk Maple (Acer leucoderme), that grows in the piedmont. Unlike A. floridanum, which has white leaf undersides, A. leucoderme has yellowish green leaf undersides. They differ in preferred habitat, with A. floridanum more common in moist soils, and A. leucoderme in drier, upland soils. Both are smaller than A. saccharum, and some can rival their larger relative for brilliant autumn color.
Yup, chalk maple! I had been told it did not naturally occur in Wake Co, being more in the slate belts and circumneutral soils in the Uwharries, but the NC Vascular Plants site does list it for Wake. Easy to miss and assume it's southern sugar maple (Acer floridanum), which is very common in the Piedmont. Acer saccharum, true sugar maple, is mostly in our mountain counties, and some western Piedmont.
If I were to plant Acer saccharum at my house in coastal NC, do you think it would do well?
I'd recommend Acer floridanum, southern sugar maple, instead. That's in its native range.
@@ncstatedendrology6721 Thank you so much!