Low riskNot food
Boxelder
Acer negundo
Maple with compound leaves. Seedlings are often mistaken for poison ivy.
- Marks
- Opposite buds; compound maple leaves; paired helicopter seeds
- Size
- 30–60 ft
- Habitat
- Laughery Creek floodplain, ditch lines, wet woods.
- Season
- Year-round; seeds late summer.
- Frequency
- abundant
A fast, brittle maple of creek bottoms. Leaves have 3–5 leaflets. Opposite branching. Paired winged seeds (samaras). Seedlings with three leaflets fool people every spring.
Uses
Soft firewood. Sap can be boiled like other maples, low sugar.
Lookalikes
Poison ivy
Toxicodendron radicans
Three leaflets, urushiol oil. The plant that hospitalizes more Hoosiers than any snake.
IrritantDo not eat