Maple

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

Maple or Acer is a genus of trees and shrubs belonging to the Yavor family. According to one theory, the Latin name of the genus comes from acris (sharp) because of the hardness of the wood used in the past to make copies.

The maple has opposite leaves, which are usually palmately cut, although some species have pinnate or uncut leaves. Maple blooms in late winter or spring, as in most species at the same time or just before the appearance of leaves.

The flowers of the maple are small and unattractive. From a few weeks to six months after flowering, a large number of seeds fall from the trees. The fruits of the maple are shaped so that they rotate as they fall and carry the seeds as far as possible.

History of the maple

In the past, kitchen utensils, especially spoons of maple, were well appreciated. It was believed that whoever ate such things was not caught by magic, and the poison consumed with the food could not affect him. In nineteenth-century Britain, it was considered necessary for even a perfectly healthy child to go through the branches of a maple tree. They believed that in this way it would remain completely healthy and live for many years.

Types of maple

Five main varieties of maple are known in Bulgaria:

Field maple / Acer campestre / is a tree up to 20 m high. The bark is gray-brown, shallow and cracked. The leaves are fluffy, opposite, palmate, and sometimes almost three-parted, with 3-5 entire or bluntly cut sections, with up to 10 cm long stalks. When falling, they are reddish.

The flowers are yellow-green, arranged in umbrella inflorescences. The ripe fruits hang down when ripe. Polish maple blooms in April and May, after leafing. It is found in most of Europe, Asia Minor, Algeria, Northern Persia, Russia. In Bulgaria it grows in mixed deciduous forests, plains and lower mountain places up to 1200 m above sea level throughout the country.

Ash-like maple / Acer negundo / is a tree of medium height. This species has a swaying crown. The bark of the stem is initially smooth, yellowish-gray, but later darkens and cracks. The leaves of the ash-like maple are large, unpaired, with 3-7 lobes, sparsely hairy below, deciduous. The flowers are small, greenish, without corollas.

Ash-like maple blooms in April and May. Its fruits are pale yellow winged, located at an acute angle. They ripen in October, but fall off the tree gradually, until the spring of next year. This species blooms and bears fruit annually and abundantly. The ash-like maple is native to Atlantic North America. It has been transferred to Bulgaria for a long time and is grown as a park tree.

Acer platanoides is a tree up to 25 m tall. Its bark is gray-brown or dark brown to almost black, shallow longitudinally cracked. The crown is thick, wide and rounded. The leaves are opposite, palmate, with pointed tips and teeth, shiny, deciduous.

The flowers are greenish-yellow, gathered in upright umbrella inflorescences, and sag when ripe. They are double winged with flat seeds, forming an angle of almost 180 °. They ripen in the fall. This species is less common in our country, mainly in the foothills and mountain belt of the whole country with the exception of the southwestern regions, the Pirin and Slavyanka mountains.

Acer pseudo plat anus is a tree up to 30 cm tall, with a broadly rounded crown and raised branches. Its bark is gray-brown, shallowly cracked, flaking in tiles. The leaves are large, opposite, palmately cut to the middle or deeper, dark green and shiny above, light green below, glabrous, hairy.

The colors of the ordinary maple are pale green, gathered in clustered drooping inflorescences. They appear after leafing. The fruit has long double wings, located at an acute angle. This species is distributed throughout the country in the shady forests as an impurity in deciduous and coniferous plantations, in the mountain and partly in the foothills.

Black maple / Acer tataricum / is a shrub or tree with raised branches. The bark is dark gray, smooth or shallowly cracked. The leaves are opposite, oblong-ovate, entire or shallowly trifoliate at the base, and double-toothed, deciduous at the edge. The flowers of the black maple are small, pale yellow, strongly aromatic, gathered in upright clustered inflorescences, appearing after leafing.

The fruit is small, with 2 red lionfish. The black maple is found in Southeastern Europe and Western Asia. In Bulgaria it grows in the bushes and forests of the whole country, mainly in the foothills, up to 700 m above sea level, less often in the plains, preferring rich in nutrients and deep soils. It is also found on calcareous terrain.

Composition of maple

The bark, lionfish, branches, fruits and wood contain mainly tannins - most in the branches and least in the lionfish. During the period of its biological development, green leaves contain xanthophyll, neoxanthin, carotene (provitamin A), violaxanthin, etc., as well as a significant amount of vitamin C. Fresh plant juice contains sugars and seeds - fatty oil.

Growing maple

The maple propagated mainly by seeds. Autumn sowing is usually done and if the seeds are full, germination is common. However, some species have their own characteristics. The silver maple (A. saccharinum L) sheds its seeds in May and if they are collected and sown immediately, you will enjoy young seedlings in the same year.

Other species (A. nicoense Maxim.) Prefer to stay in the soil for two years before showing. Some ornamental varieties are propagated by cuttings with relatively low success and very special care.

They do not form pure plantations, but rather mixed with other deciduous trees. Maple requires nutrient-rich soil.

The requirements for light are also different, as most species are shade-tolerant. In any case, the maple does not like loneliness. And if we decide to grow it, it is better to plant a group of at least two or three trees. The maple, grown as a bonsai, also does not tolerate growing without company.

Benefits of maple

Besides being a beautiful ornamental plant, maple it is also extremely useful. It occupies an honorable place in the medicine of many nations around the world. Maple has a diuretic, analgesic and tonic effect. It is used successfully as an astringent, against vomiting, in jaundice, for the treatment of kidney stones, against gout and wounds.

Sugar maple, which grows only in North America, produces the famous maple syrup, which is a great alternative to sugar. Maple syrup is also very nutritious, purifying and useful, it is successfully used in the diet even of diabetics.

The maple not only strengthens the body, but gives peace to the soul. It removes nervous tension and aggression, harmonizes the state of the aura and the biofield of man. The energy of the wood is gentle, pleasant and invigorating.

Folk medicine with maple

Maple / bark of young twigs / is used in our folk medicine (except for ash-like maple) as a diuretic and astringent, against diarrhea.

Prepare a decoction of 10 g of finely crushed dry bark and 500 ml of boiling water. Strain the cooled infusion and take 1 tablespoon 3 times a day. The same extract is used externally for hair loss.

In addition, the decoction of young twigs and leaves of maple / Acer tataricum / is used in our folk medicine for eye inflammation in the form of compresses.

In folk medicine, sweet juice is used as food, to strengthen, especially for young organisms. The sap flowing from the maple stems is collected, filtered and thickened.