Freeman
Maples
(This 862nd Buffalo
Sunday News
column was first published on September 30, 2007.)
Two Freeman Maple
Leaves
Joanne has not confined her botanical
efforts to indoor activities. She has also been working for three years on a
major outdoor research task: recording the flora of Baehre Swamp in Amherst. To
me her efforts represent the very best of what has come to be known as citizen
science.
Baehre Swamp is located on both sides of
Hopkins Road north of Klein Road. In it a quarter-mile, state-maintained
boardwalk parallels the highway.
Several days ago I joined Joanne at
Margaret Louise Park for a walk into the swamp. An indication of this dry year:
we didn't even need boots. Normally most of this area is covered with water
but, although the rich soil still felt moist, it hardly wet my shoes.
We began along the boardwalk but soon
ventured farther west off the trail. When we did so, the change was striking.
Between the boardwalk and the highway most of the plants are aliens. Knotweed
and common reed have largely taken over this area, crowding out cattails and
other native plants. But farther in, American wildflowers predominate. Among
them are white snakeroot, sticktight, cocklebur, jewelweed, skunk cabbage and,
of course, the ever-present poison ivy. At this time of year rich purple and
red leaves disguise those dangerous poison ivy vines.
We were not focused on wildflowers,
however. Joanne is now working on the trees of this region and she pointed out
some of the many species found here: swamp white oak, cottonwood, black and
crack willows, American elm, red ash, quaking aspen, box elder and catalpa.
Although those other trees appear, this
is predominately a maple forest. An indication of this is illustrated by
Joanne's random survey of a section of the woodland: 37 of the 40 trees she
found there were maples.
But as she identified those maples, Joanne
noticed something unusual about them. She expected a mix of red and silver
species and at first identified almost all she found as reds. Looking closer,
however, she found that the characteristics of the trees in Baehre Swamp
differed from those of the usual red maples. Several of their identification
characters did not apply to these trees.
In particular, the middle lobe of the red
maple leaf (opposite the stem) is wider at the base than at the end. Also its
samara is small -- usually an inch or less in length. Samaras are those winged
seeds, usually doubled to create what we used to call pinwheels. The trees
Joanne examined almost all had leaves narrower at the base of that lobe than at
the end and larger samaras.
Clearly something was unusual here. She
retreated to the museum library and searched the literature about maples. There
she found a report of some research on maples done for the Canadian Forestry
Service in the Ottawa Valley by botanist Mary Moore. Moore was looking for red
maple-silver maple hybrids called Freeman maples. (The scientific name for this
hybrid is either Acer saccharinum x rubrum or Acer
x fremanii.)
Most notable in Moore's report was her
comment that "these hybrids typically occurred in maple swamps or along
flood plains...where trees were surrounded by water in spring." Baehre
Swamp certainly fits that description.
Back to the swamp went Joanne. Checking
the trees she found that they were almost all Freeman maples, a hybrid not
previously reported from this region's woodlands. (Freeman maples are also
grown and sold by a few nurseries.)
On our hike we examined many maple
leaves, most of them still green. All we found were Freemans, which led to an
interesting question: are the maples elsewhere in this region's swampy areas also
Freeman maples?
This is a question that you readers can
help answer. Check the maples in nearby swamps to determine whether their
leaves meet the Freeman maple characteristics. Please communicate your findings
-- red or Freeman -- to me and I will pass them on to
Joanne.-- Gerry
Rising