General: Rocky Mountain Maple (Acer glabrum var. diffusum) is a modest tree of damp places in the mountains. The leaves are palmate with three lobes, and each lobed is and slightly notched. Young stems are red; older are gray. Seeds are produced with wings that catch the wind.

Rocky Mountain Maples are found along washes, rivers, and other damp areas in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland), Transition (Yellow Pine Forest), and Canadian (Pine-Fir Forest) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, Rocky Mountain Maple can most easily be found in moist canyons on Mt. Charleston and other places in the Spring Mountains.

Family: Maple (Aceraceae).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Upright to scraggly, branching shrub to tree.

Height: 6 to 20 ft.

Trunk: silver-gray

Leaves: Palmately lobed with 3 leaflets (leaflets not deeply notched), to about 2-inches wide. Teeth on margin few and blunt

Flowers: Blooms during the spring. Flowers not showy.

Seeds: Seeds hang from small branchlets; each seed has a wing (samara) that catches in the wind.

Distribution: California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.

Habitat: Moist canyons, springs.

Elevation: About 5,000 to 9,000 feet.

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