Soon after I downloaded the Seek app on my phone, I started scanning whatever I found as I walked through our woods. Some names were familiar, but this one stopped me. Striped Maple? Of course, there were the stripes on the trunks that I had never noticed before. But maple? The floppy leaves didn’t hang the way the sugar maple leaves did and the shape is looser, and that lent an entirely different look to the tree.

I noticed that the tree was small, and the only one like it in the area. Now that it had a name, it stuck out, and eventually I did find a couple more specimens on our property.

Later, I learned that the Striped Maple is also called the Goosefoot Maple, since the shape of the leaves resembles the shape of a goose’s foot.

This is an “understory” tree, which doesn’t get very big. It provides browse and seeds for animals. Ruffed grouse, of which we have many, apparently eat the vegetative buds.

Striped MapleAcer pensylvanicum
ObservedSeptember 27, 2020