Acer saccharinum silver maple

Silver maple, Mayfield Avenue. Sairus Patel, 8 Dec 2022

Acer saccharinum leaves. From Trees of Stanford and Environs, by Ronald Bracewell

The characteristically shaped leaves are about 5 by 5 inches, five-lobed with coarse teeth, and silvery below. The sap, which is not milky, is a source of maple sugar.

A massive sprawling specimen is at 733 Mayfield Ave, on the left. A smaller one, upright and symmetrical, is in the median of Page Mill Road just south of Deer Creek Road, at the crest of the hill just before Page Mill swoops down to the Highway 280 entrance (map pin). Another is sprouting from a stump on the southwest corner of Lasuen Street and Museum Way. Former campus specimens include one on the right at 579 Alvarado (a heavily pruned compatriot still remains in the back yard, visible from Lane C) and another at 733 Mayfield Avenue, planted in 1958 by faculty youngster and future arborist Phil Cannon.

In Palo Alto see silver maple as a street tree at 890 California Avenue, at the southeast section of Peers Park, and behind the fence on the Wellesley Street side of 790 College Avenue.

Name derivation: Acer – Latin for maple; saccharinum – sugary (the sap).