Acer griseum
paperbark maple
Attractive flaking cinnamon bark, leaves with three leaflets, green above, silvery below, with some coarse teeth. Fall color is brilliant red, though the crown is sparse. Rows of raised planters behind Old Chemistry feature multitrunked specimens from 2016. Nine remain of trees in the inner courtyard of Crothers Hall, near the building entrances, planted in 2010. Four older transplants endure in the lawn on the left of the Mausoleum.
Campus’s handsomest established specimen is at the right corner of the front of Lou Henry Hoover House. See the region’s champion in size and beauty on the left of the back porch of Gamble Garden House in Palo Alto.
Name derivation: Acer – Latin for maple; griseum – gray (lower leaf surface).
About this Entry: The first sentence of this entry is from the book Trees of Stanford and Environs, by Ronald Bracewell, published 2005. Crothers locations added Dec 2010 (John Rawlings). Family name updated from Aceraceae to Sapindaceae Oct 2017 (SP). Old Chemistry, Hoover House, Gamble locations and other text added (Sep 2023, SP).
