Acer platanoides L.

Acer: Ancient Latin name for maple

platanoides: from "platanus", the name the Romans gave to the plane tree, and "-oides" (Gr.) = similar to, of the same shape or nature as, because of the similarity between its leaves and those of the plane tree

Habit: Deciduous, polygamous tree up to 30 m tall, with smooth bark and a broad crown.

Leaves: opposite, deciduous, simple, petiolate; blade ± 5-20 cm in diam., broadly ovate to suborbicular, palmately lobed, with 5 ovate, scarcely and irregularly dentate lobes.

Flowers: hermaphrodite or unisexual (male flowers), small, greenish, not showy, pentamerous, arranged in ± erect inflorescences with long pedicels, with 8 stamens; gynoecium syncarpous, 2-carpellate, with a superior ovary.

Fruit: double samara; wings spreading at a strong obtuse angle, slightly narrow towards the base, broader towards the apex.

It flowers in spring and its fruits mature in summer-autumn.

Native to SW Asia and C and S Europe, including the N of the Iberian Peninsula.

The specific epithet platanoides reflects the similarity between its leaves and those of the plane tree, Platanus x hispanica Münchh, which it could be confused with. However, both are easy to distinguish by the way their leaves are arranged: the leaves of maples are opposite whereas those of plane trees are alternate. It differs from Acer pseudoplatanus L. mainly in its ± erect inflorescences and its fruits whose wings are much more divergent and broader towards the apex.

It is cultivated as an ornamental, particularly as a shade tree in parks and promenades. Its timber is used in cabinetmaking and to make flooring.

It is easily propagated from seeds.