Boxelder-The lowliest maple of all

            Fast-growing Boxelder was widely planted throughout the East and Midwest for street shade and windbreaks until the early 20th century. However, because it lacked the beauty, resistance to storm damage, and long life of its more glamorous cousin, the sugar maple, the practice eventually was discouraged. In the open reaches of the Great Plains through which flows the Missouri River, though, the Boxelder was welcome. Able to endure climate extremes and drought, it grew to greater stature, providing needed shade and shelter from the ever-present winds. Its seeds, like tiny helicopters, swirled with the breezes to find homes for sprouting, and grew where nothing did before.

            A true maple, Boxelder even today is tapped for its sweet sap, which is made into syrup and sugar. This is especially true in its western range, where the preferred sugar maple fails to grow. Boxelder's comparatively soft, light wood never attained the woodworking status of the hard and often distinctively grained sugar maple. Yet, where it grows to any great size, it finds its way with other nondescript maples into slack barrels, boxes and crates, woodenware, and inexpensive furniture.

            You'll find Boxelder (Acer negundo) parading under a number of local names - ash-leaf maple, sugar ash, and Manitoba maple to name a few. Throughout most of its range, Boxelder inhabits stream and river bottoms, and lake shorelines. In these moist places, elm, hackberry, black walnut, cottonwood, and willow make up its neighbors. Except for the occasional specimen in the western part of its range that grows to 75' tall and a diameter of 4', Boxelder commonly peaks growth at heights of 40-50' and 2-3' diameters. Rarely does a Boxelder reach 100 years of age. Boxelder's pointed leaves resemble those of white ash, but with more scallops. Double seed pods joined into a v-shape hang on the tree's branches from early summer on. At first glimpse, Boxelder's gray-brown bark could also pass for that of white ash - its flattened ridges appear similar - except that the furrows run much shallower.

            The wood of Boxelder, at 27 pounds per cubic foot dry, weighs nearly the same as white pine and rates as the lightest and weakest of the American maples. Close-grained and creamy white in color, Boxelder tends to be brittle. Sometimes a Boxelder tree contains wood that carries raspberry-colored streaks and flecks, a property that woodturners find especially appealing for bright bowls, slender goblets, and attractive platters. These red streaks are composed of a pigment from a fungus (Fusarium negundi). . Because there's little difference between the color or the working characteristics of boxelder's heartwood and sapwood, you needn't sort through piles looking for one over the other. The wood isn't suitable for outdoor projects.

            Where Boxelder grows to commercial size, it's mixed and marketed with soft maples for retail sale. Small local mills may distinguish Boxelder from soft maples and specialty suppliers of spalted turning blocks and squares certainly do Veneer or plywood isn't available