Boxelder, Box Elder Maple, Manitoba Maple

Love this tree. It's native to the state of Indiana and many other areas. Here's its native range:

"Boxelder is the most ...Read Morewidely distributed of all the North American maples, ranging from coast to coast and from Canada to Guatemala. In the United States, it is found from New York to central Florida; west to southern Texas; and northwest through the Plains region to eastern Alberta, central Saskatchewan and Manitoba; and east in southern Ontario. Further west, it is found along watercourses in the middle and southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. In California, boxelder grows in the Central Valley along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, in the interior valleys of the Coast Range, and on the western slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains. In Mexico and Guatemala, a variety is found in the mountains."
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/acer/ne...

More info: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ACNE2

Another Tree that I love. For one thing you and Mess with peoples heads because it looks like Poison Oak. It grows everywere here in Indi...Read Moreana. I been trying to get a hold of some seeds off of the trees for years... still no luck. Also, There is noting like runing up to people and telling them its Poison oak. I do it all the time at work. lol

I had a very small one behind my house when we moved in. I decided to let it grow, despite hearing it is a weed. It is now a wonderful tr...Read Moreee, and my only regret about it is that it is close enough to the house that we'll have to get rid of it soon.

I just LOVE this tree, It's very fast growing, provides plenty of privacy and Gets wide and bushy. I have found this to be a very strong ...Read Moretree even In high winds. A friend of mine was able to make a drink from this tree called elderberry wine, and to say it was great just don't say It enough. Also I have tasted some syrup that was tapped out of one of these tree's and you CAN'T taste the difference between It and sugar maple. Boxelder syrup is a little bit thinner but taste just as good. This tree will quickly feel In a area and IF you have both male and female trees you will have seeds and then they will have offspring and you can have privacy In a hurry which can be a REALLY good thing. All in all this is a very good tree to have and I highly recommend this tree to everyone.

Nasty little weed tree, and hard to eliminate because it drops so many seeds. Hubby and I have spent nearly 2 years getting rid of every...Read More seedling and young tree we can find on our property. Not very hardy during storms either, due to the soft wood - we just had a large limb from one crack and drop on our roof. Avoid this "tree" if at all possible.

In southern Ontario, Acer negundo is considered seriously invasive. If you live in southern Ontario, please do not plant this tree.

I bought my house in NE Ohio because I fell in love with the box elder maple tree in the front yard. What a glorious, reliable and strong...Read More tree it proved to be. This past summer, it survived the Sunday evening Hurricane Ike winds (excess of 70 mph for 7 hours) but our arborist warned that it was rotted and dead in the trunk. He took the tree down last week - there was ZERO ROT in the trunk. The tree was not dead. The stump measures 42" across. I am still crying. Despite being highly allergic to this tree, I loved mine and feel like a failure for having it removed based on an arborist's incorrect diagnosis. According to the rings in the stump, the tree was over 85 years old - in it's golden years, but not dead yet.

I have quite a few of these weedy trees growing along my property line. From experience I know that once cut down this tree will produce ...Read Moremany suckers from the stump.

This wonderful tree, a male box elder, was planted as a sapling in 1875 by the original settler, Niels Bergeson, while the family was sti...Read Morell living in a dugout on the cut bank below it, and while the house, above, was being built. Though we have other, female box elders which host the box elder bug scattered on the hillside above and in a pasture we own below us, this tree does not host them. Moreover, the bug is not particularly damaging to either the plant nor the house. We have accepted them as part of life here.

Six days ago, during the hot, still early afternoon, an enormous limb spontaneously dropped. I understand this phenomenon is not uncommon and has something to do with heat and moisture. Our tree man, Mark Malmstrom, is going to give the box elder a gentle pruning, trimming back the longer limbs, especially the horizontal ones. He will also cable one of them. Mark cabled three of its limbs in 2001, not, however, the one that dropped.

Many children and grandchildren and friends' children have enjoyed climbing and swinging on this tree which has become part of our family.

Boxelder maple is a native pioneer species across a broad swath of North America, and finds a pretty permanent home in boggy or floodplai...Read Moren soils. It is a prolific seed producer, which are a favorite food source of some migrating birds. Planted out in a home landscape creates some difficulties, but used in naturalized areas or in restoring habitats, it is an excellent choice that will establish with little or no assistance.

This tree grows everywere in my yard. They are very suckery trees and they are very weak. Before we had a tropical depression and a large...Read More branch broke and hit my shed and damaged it in only 40 mph winds. They are growing in my large juniper and in my lilacs and they are going to cause problems. These trees are so weedy.

I'm rating this neutral as I'm not sure of an outcome yet.
I live in downtown Toronto, Ontario and I have what appears to be a box...Read More elder sprouting just behind my back garden fence. There's a retaining wall at the bottom of my garden, with an approximate 7-8 foot drop to the neighbouring garden. Based on photograph ID I think it's a female. I'm actually hoping to get some feedback on it as this has not been planted purposely, and I'm wondering what the positive/negative traits are.
I'm planning to eventually install a privacy fence to replace the dilapidated, broken down wire fencing that's there (I just moved in last fall) as well as landscaping the area, so I'm wondering if this tree could potentially damage any work done. It's not directly on my property but spreads over into it and is close enough to my property line that the roots could spread into my garden.
Thanks in advance!

Be very careful when planting this particular maple especially A. negundo " Flamingo" as they are invasive in warm climates and VERY brit...Read Moretle. I work in a windy little town called Fontana and these trees are always snapping off major limbs in the wind. Very fast growing as are the suckers and seeds.-Bagpypr

I just planted 3 boxelder cultivars ("Flamingo") on the parking strip along the street, and so far so good. Many sites indicate that the...Read More native boxelder is prone to many downside issues, but the cultivars are not. I just want to mention that in defense of the variety, since the "naturally occurring" plants do indeed have some negatives (roots, bugs, fragility). I'm in So.Calif, and will keep an eye on how these do with water needs as well. Thank you for reading!

Weak wooded and untidy trees that grow quickly in the most inconvienient places.

They start to shed their leaves almost as...Read More soon as they get budded out well. They produce an extraordinary amount of seeds with an amazing germination rate. Seedlings pop up everywhere. The wood is weak, so they tend to break frequently in storms. Boxelders are also hosts to quite a few insects also.

Do not plant near houses where the leaves and limbs can get in the gutters and the roots will fill your sewer lines.

Box elder is a fast-growing, weak-wooded, suckering, medium-sized, deciduous tree that typically grows 30-50’ (less frequently to 70’...Read More) tall with an irregular rounded crown. It is widely distributed throughout the U.S. The name box elder (sometimes boxelder) is in reference to a use of the wood for making crates and boxes and the supposed similarity of the leaves to those of elder (Sambucus). Leaves also resemble those of some ashes, hence the additional common name of ash-leaved maple.

This tree is considered to be "weedy" but it is fast growing and survives in poor conditions. Be careful planting it next to homes as i...Read Moret is prone to storm breakage and the female tree attracts Box Elder bugs

The Boxelder (Acer negundo), is often called Ashleaf Maple by some old-timers. This tree can be tapped for its sweet syrup, but is...Read More not commercially used anymore since the preference for Sugar Maple syrup is more abundant.

What to look for: Leaves are 6-15 inches long, compound with 3 to 7 irregularly lobed, coarse-toothed leaflets. Flowers are yellow-green. Most immature branches are green. Often found growing along watercources, swamp edges and forest edges.