Vine Maple

February 4, 2022July 4, 2023
Broadleaf tree, Native to BC
by dhir

Last updated May 24, 2023. All photos by the author.

There are many maple trees in our province, a mix of native species and introduced species. The native species are bigleaf maple, vine maple, and Douglas maple. The introduced species I have noticed most often are Norway maple, silver maple, Japanese maple and paperbark maple. One thing I have learned recently is that not all maple trees have typical “maple-shaped” leaves! I find that bigleaf maple and vine maple are the easiest to identify, especially in urban forests. Vine maples can be identified year-round, even when they don’t have any leaves, because of their interesting growth habit and green bark. Vine maple is described as a deciduous shrub or small tree, so you don’t have to look too far up to find its identifying features.

A vine maple leaning over a trail in an urban park in early February. At this time of year, look for multi-stemmed trees with horizontal tendencies. Some trees even touch the ground and grow more roots wherever they make contact.

The many stems of a vine maple in early February. Look for green bark, very smooth or with shallow vertical cracks. This tree was supporting many mosses and lichens.

A vine maple in an urban park in mid-August. Look how horizontal the leaves are, stretched out to absorb the sunlight. Vine maple is easy to identify in the summer by its double-winged dried fruits called samaras and its almost-circular maple leaves. The samaras start off red and become greener as they mature.

Vine maple, Acer circinatum, is a native species that, like all maples, makes a dry fruit called a samara. It may be easy initially to confuse some varieties of Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, with vine maple but hopefully these pictures will help you avoid confusion.

In the spring (the following photos are from April) vine maple starts to unfurl its bright green leaves and attempt to attract pollinating insects with its delicious red-bracted flowers. If you are lucky enough to be near a vine maple when it is just starting to flower, you can taste the nectar by licking a flower. There is so much nectar at times it looks like the flowers are crying slowly. I saw flies collecting the nectar, tricked into spreading pollen by the offer of carbohydrate-rich food.

White flowers with red bracts seek attention from beneath crumpled green spring leaves. The new twigs are reddish-brown.

When they first emerge, leaves have a distinct droopy “I need ironing” appearance.

Seen from above, you can observe the opposite leaf attachment (2 leaves at 1 node).

Seen from further back, the new leaves eem to cling tiredly to the many branches. As they unfurl they become flat and mostly parallel to the ground. Vine maples often have multiple stems. There is some debate as to whether multi-stemmed plants are actually trees or if they should be labeled shrubs.

If you observe the flowers carefully you may be able to see a tiny samara clasped inside the white petals.

Vine maples have very interesting bark, very different from the other trees it is normally found around. The ones I observed had multiple textures and colours of bark on the trunks of a single tree. The following photos are of different trees.

Bright green and fairly smooth with dark brown lenticels. (The lenticels feel like small bumps and are used for gas exchange).

Brown and cracked, greenish from the mosses and lichens growing on it.

More muted green, the lenticels on this tree were more diamond shaped than horizontal line.

In mid-August I saw an eastern grey squirrel (invasive!) feasting on the vine maple seeds. In the video, notice also the angle at which the trunks are growing. (Sorry, I don’t know how to imbed a video you have to download to view).

Squirrel eating vine maple samaras video

This invasive eastern grey squirrel spent quite some time munching away on the nutritious seeds of this vine maple tree in an urban park.

When it finished, I ventured closer to see what remained:

The litter left behind from an eastern grey squirrel’s meal. Each fruit had been gnawed at the seed end leaving behind only useless wings.

A closer view. No chance at all that these will ever sprout into new trees. This is why trees have to make so many seeds, so some get eaten and enough will survive to create the next generation of trees.

Vine maple was used by many Indigenous People throughout vine maple’s range. The wood was used for bows, frames for fishing nets, snowshoes, cradle frames, woven baskets, spoons, and knitting needles. The wood was also burned for fuel and the charcoal could be mixed with oil to make a black paint. Although not a “food”, the bark was boiled to make a tea for colds.

So head outside at any time of the year and find yourself a vine maple tree (or shrub!)

BOOKS I READ:

“Acer circinatum.” Vancouver Tree Book: a Living City Field Guide, by David Tracey, Pure Wave Media, 2016, pp. 102-3.

“Maples.” Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest Third Edition, by Arthur R. Kruckeberg and Linda Chalker-Scott, Greystone Books, 2019, pp. 82-84.

“Vine Maple.” Luschiim’s Plants a Hul’q’umi’num’ (Cowichan) Ethnobotany, by Luschiim Arvid Charlie and Nancy J. Turner, Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, British Columbia, 2021, p. 86.

“Vine Maple.” Plant Technology of First Peoples in British Columbia, by Nancy J. Turner, Royal British Columbia Museum, 2019, pp. 127-128.

“Vine maple.” Tree Book: Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia, by Roberta Parish and S. M. Thomson, Canadian Forest Service, 1994, pp. 116-119.