Belongs to the Sapindov (Maple) family. Type: Ash-leaved or American maple.
In its natural habitat, this tree can be seen on the North American continent. Maple prefers areas that are well lit by the sun.
The soil he needs is rich and sufficiently moist. It is necessary to water the plant periodically. Maples can grow up to twenty meters and above. Life expectancy is long, the age of individual specimens is one hundred years! Propagated by seeds.
Where does maple grow?
Maples are considered one of the most common trees on the planet. They grow in the northern regions of Europe, in North America and even in the tropics. Botanists claim that even on the African continent there is one type of maple.
In our country, there are about twenty varieties of this tree. It is noteworthy that maples very rarely form dense thickets. They prefer to grow alone, but sometimes form small groups.
Maples feel best in mountainous areas. They can be found even at an altitude of three thousand meters above sea level. Therefore, a lot of maple species grow in the Caucasus, where botanists have more than eleven of them.
Japanese maple is listed in the Red Book. This magnificent tree immediately strikes the imagination with its unusual appearance. In a biology textbook, the description of the maple leaf is given in great detail, including the Red Book tree.
a brief description of
Before proceeding with the description of maple leaves, we would like to talk in more detail about the tree itself. Usually it grows quite high - from ten to twenty meters. Among the variety of species, there are also shrubs. They usually do not grow taller than ten meters, with an average height of around five meters.
Most maples are deciduous. In the summer they delight with lush greenery of a bizarre shape, and in the fall they change color. By winter, maple leaves fall off (in biology, a description of this process is given in grade 6).
Maple has a very beautiful wood, which is often used by carpenters in their work. It is characterized by a white color with yellow and reddish veins.
Presentation on the topic: »Which group of plants does the rose belong to? flowering. " - Transcript:
1 What group of plants does the rose belong to? flowering
2 What group of plants does larch belong to? conifers
3 What group of plants does the seaweed belong to? seaweed
4 What group of plants does the maple belong to? flowering
5 What group of plants does the dandelion belong to? flowering
6 What group of plants does the cuckoo flax belong to? mosses
7 What group of plants does the pine belong to? conifers
8 What group of plants does the nettle belong to? flowering
9 Choose another name Choose another name: APPLE SUNFLOWER SEA CABBAGE ASTRA PINE LIPAKEDR Dandelion
10 1. Read the question carefully. 2. Read all the answers carefully. Remember that there can be several answers. 3. Choose a geometric shape (or shapes). corresponding to your answer to him. 4. Draw on your checklist. Instructions:
11 biology zoology botany 1. What is the name of plant science?
12 2. Find an extra plant.pine fir fern
13 3. Which non-flowering plant? bird cherry seaweed chamomile
14 4. Which plant is a coniferous one? cedar fern sedge
15 5. Which plant is shown in the picture? coniferous flower moss
16 6. What plants live in the water? coniferous mosses algae
17 7. What plants have flowers and fruits? coniferous flower mosses
18 8. Find the correct statement. Mosses are inhabitants of water. Moss has no roots, no flowers, and no seed-bearing fruit. Conifers have no roots.
19 9. In which row are only flowering plants named? Spruce, mountain ash, chamomile. Seaweed, dandelion, rose. Snapdragon, linden, viburnum.
Distinctive features of the tree
Interesting and unusual are not only maple leaves (we will give a description in one of the following sections of the article), but also some of its features. They will be discussed in the future.
For example, it is very important that the tree can survive almost any frost. They will not harm him. And in the spring it will wake up one of the first, delighting residents of cities with delicate greenery.
Maple is also not afraid of the lack of water. In the heat, many trees dry out and lose their foliage, and during a long drought they can completely die. But this does not threaten the maple, it will calmly survive the difficult period, later releasing even more new shoots.
We have already mentioned that the tree grows very quickly. In one year, it can increase by one meter, and all the shoots will be covered with dense foliage.
A description of the maple tree would be incomplete without mentioning another of its features. People around the world are very fond of sweet maple juice. In the spring, it is easy to get it by making a small cut in the trunk. Various sweets are often made from the juice. For example, people in most American states cannot imagine a dessert without maple syrup. It is produced by various companies and is very popular.
Leaf description: general information
What is a leaf? What is the definition in botany? If you refer to educational materials, then we can say that the leaf is a plant organ located above the ground. It attaches to the side of the stem and has three important functions.
First of all, it is photosynthesis, without which it is impossible to imagine any plant. Also, the processes of evaporation and respiration pass through the leaves.
The sheet consists of several parts, which we will list in the following list:
- Plate. This part is the largest and widest. The leaf plate is constantly turning in the wake of the sun's rays. Its main goal is to get as much sunlight as possible.
- Petiole. It moves away from the base of the plate, and with its help it is attached to the plant. The petiole is narrow and elongated. It is he who helps the plate to turn freely behind the sun. At the point of attachment to the plant, it has a slight thickening.
- The base of the sheet. This is the name of the attachment point to the stem or branch.
- Stipules. Not all plants have them. Typically, stipules are outgrowths located at the base of the leaf. They are very tightly pressed against the petiole and can have a bright color.
It is noteworthy that the leaves can have one or more leaf plates. They differ among themselves in shape and structure.
Now we can move on to describing the maple leaf (in biology, in grade 6, students begin to study this topic). Let's start with the shape.
Caring for unpretentious abutilon
Domesticated maple is characterized by fast growth and long-term retention of buds. The requirements for caring for a houseplant include:
- regular and abundant moistening of the earth, the pot must be equipped with good drainage;
- periodic loosening of the soil;
- timely pruning of the bush and removal of dried buds;
- in hot weather, foliage is sprayed with water;
- when budding, the plant needs special feeding.
In winter, the frequency of watering is reduced until the arrival of spring heat. Otherwise, the bush will refuse to bloom, and a lack or excess of moisture will cause the leaves to dry out and fall off.
The plant must be protected from direct sunlight. It feels good in the shade of southern windows. During flowering, the pot is taken out onto the terrace or balcony. In warm summers, the culture can be on the site in the shade of trees.
Important! If you want to get young specimens, flower growers use two of the most convenient methods: cuttings and seed propagation. Some varieties of striped abutilone cannot be grown from seeds; propagation only by cuttings is suitable for them.
Indoor maple will delight its owner with flowers when grown in a warm room with sufficient lighting. It is planted in greenhouses, offices and homes. With proper watering, the culture will delight with the largest buds in size, it will be able to bloom even in the winter months.
Maple leaf shape: description
The tree has finger-like leaves. At first glance, this shape is very similar to the finger-split shape, but this is only at first glance. In a botany textbook, a number of comments are attached to the description of the maple leaf, which make it possible not to confuse its shape with similar ones.
In maple, the leaf lobes are quite wide and look large, while the finger-split form is characterized by narrow and slightly elongated lobes. Maple leaves (the description will be incomplete without mentioning this nuance) have veins. Usually there are from three to nine of them on one blade, while one of them always has a more pronounced size and lies in the center.
This characteristic is identical to the description of the Norway maple leaf and is suitable for most of the known species. However, some trees are distinguished by their leaf shape, which does not match the general description.
Acer negundo
This tree is considered one of the most unpretentious and hardy in its genus, therefore it is often used for planting in large cities. Also, the plant is characterized by increased resistance to dust and gas, and has enhanced regeneration properties. Such a maple grows to a height of 15-20 m, has a trunk circumference of about 40-60 cm. The crown has weakly drooping shoots, develops unevenly, the trunk is slightly curved, covered with gray bark with shallow furrows. The leaves are arranged on long petioles opposite, have 3-7 lobes, 15-17 cm long, pinnate configuration and light green color.
The culture blooms with dioecious flowers: male flowers open earlier than female ones. The scent of flowers attracts bees, who take nectar from them for honey. Flowering occurs in late spring and early summer and lasts for 2 weeks. Small green flowers bloom together with leaves. At the end of flowering, fruits are formed, consisting of seeds and impellers. Full ripening of the fruits occurs in mid-autumn, but they continue to hang on the shoots until spring. More than 500,000 lionfish form on one tree. The average life span of a tree is 80-100 years in the wild, under conditions of cultivation under unfavorable factors about 30 years.
Characteristics of leaves depending on the species
Some maples can surprise you with shamrocks. This form looks quite bizarre, but it is not uncommon. You can see it, for example, near the Manchurian or Maksimovich maple.
Ash-leaved maple has a complex-pinnate leaf structure. It can consist of three, five or even nine leaves. Botanists are still trying to figure out what exactly their number depends on.
The hornbeam maple has simple leaves that closely resemble the hornbeam tree. They are distinguished by feathery venation.
Flowering maple
If a maple tree is planted in your yard, then you probably know that bees always gather around it during the flowering period.And this is not surprising, because the tree is classified as a honey plant. Its small yellowish buds give off a very pleasant delicate aroma that attracts not only bees, but also squirrels.
Many beekeepers specially planted maples next to apiaries. It is believed that this type of tree is very suitable for this.
Trees bloom at the very end of winter or early spring. Usually, by the end of April, absolutely all trees bloom. The petals are often colored red, green, and orange. But still, yellow flowers are most often found.
River maple (Acer ginnala)
Trees of this species have a height of about 10 m. The stems grow vertically, have a thin shape, the trunk is short, covered with light brown thin bark. The bark of mature trees acquires shallow cracks. The leaves are simple in shape, green in color, have a glossy sheen. By autumn, they change their color to red or yellow-orange. Flowering is observed simultaneously with the formation of leaves. The flowers are green-yellow in color and form racemose inflorescences. At the end of flowering, lionfish fruits are formed, which are red. This variety is characterized by high frost resistance, drought resistance and wind resistance. Propagated by seeds.
Maple flower structure
In a biology textbook, the description of maple leaves is often accompanied by a characteristic of the structure of flowers. They usually have five petals located symmetrically to each other. It is noteworthy that flowers are collected in different shapes. On some trees it is an umbrella, on others it is a brush. There are maples where flowers are collected in a scutellum.
However, this characteristic does not matter when it comes to the structure. Each flower has two pistils and about twelve stamens.
Narrow-crowned sycamore maple (Pseudoplatanus ‘Erectum’)
This species was bred in Holland in 1935. Its representatives grow to a height of 25 m, however, the crown is only 8 meters. Young trees are characterized by a columnar crown configuration, while older trees have an oval shape. The leaves are large, the length of the leaf is about 30 cm, attached to short thick petioles. Flowers are formed into umbellate inflorescences, have a yellow-green color. Trees prefer to be grown in shaded areas, in loose, fertile soil.
Maple fruit
In Soviet times, maples of various species were actively planted in parks. But today, such close attention is not paid to the improvement of urban areas, so no one is engaged in the mass planting of trees. However, there are only more maples. What is the reason for this fact?
Everything is very simple. The fact is that maples reproduce well by self-fall. Their fruits are able to germinate and in just a couple of years turn from a timid sprout into a full-fledged young tree.
This survival rate is provided by the very shape of the fruit. They resemble a small propeller, which is kept on a branch almost until the very frost. Then gusts of wind carry these "helicopters" around all the neighborhoods, where they await the onset of spring.
Usually, no more than ten percent of the seeds germinate, but this amount is enough to maintain the maple population.
Diseases
Maple leaves are very fond of pests, so they are often attacked by various insects. For example, aphids, lepidoptera larvae and the Asiatic barbel cause great harm to trees. These pests eat up maple leaves almost completely and as a result, trees die in large numbers.
Trees are also susceptible to fungal diseases. They most often suffer from powdery mildew, black mold and root rot. These diseases cause damage to maples of varying severity. Some completely destroy the tree, while others simply spoil the thick and beautiful crown.
Experts suggest fighting pests and fungal diseases mainly with fungicides.There is a different type of solution for each problem. I would like to clarify that maple is a very tenacious tree. With proper care, it can deal with any pest and recovers quickly. Therefore, despite the large number of dangers, it often becomes the main decoration of the garden.
Maple benefits
Of course, first of all, maples are valued for their beauty. After all, these trees delight with openwork leaves, an unusual trunk color and incredibly bright shades of the crown in the autumn. You can admire maple for a long time, so landscape designers often plant it separately from other trees, thereby creating a certain accent.
From time immemorial, musical instruments have been made from maple wood. There are many ancient violins created by the hands of great masters, which were once a beautiful and strong tree with a spreading crown.
In the United States, maple is often used to make baseball bats and bowling pins. They are durable and easy to clean.
Growing maple at home
A smaller copy of a maple tree can be grown at home using the art of bansai. Most often, small trees are grown from conifers: spruce, pine. At the same time, the plant remains unchanged all year round. Bansai deciduous tree takes a lot of effort and time, but the result can be a tree that behaves like a full-fledged plant. For the cultivation of bansai, special specimens were bred, whose small leaves look quite organic on a small tree. These include:
Maples are popular all over the world. Love for this plant is due to its unpretentiousness, shade tolerance, frost resistance, the ability to grow on scarce soils. It is impossible to be indifferent to him.
And what a beautiful maple in autumn! This plant is often mentioned by writers and poets, artists are used in their works and even ordinary people are not averse to drawing a picture with a stunningly beautiful tree.
"Curly maple, carved" is familiar to everyone. It is often mentioned in poems and songs, which is not surprising, since maple is a very beautiful tree. Therefore, this plant is always in the first positions among landscape designers, and it is quite common in urban landscaping.
Most often, we think of maple as a tall tree with a dense, spreading crown, completely unsuitable for small gardens. But there are many of its species and varieties of compact form, there are even domestic dwarf representatives.
Folk omens and mystical legends
People have always considered maple to be an amazing tree and have associated many beliefs with it. For example, it was customary to plant maple trees in the courtyard of the house. At this moment, the life of the tree was closely intertwined with the soul of the owner of the house. While he was in good health, the maple also delighted with his beauty. But after the death of a person, the tree usually dried up within a few days.
In ancient times, it was believed that maple reacts to the condition of people. If a suffering person touched it, then the tree died in a few days. It absorbed all the negative accumulated in the soul of the offended, and could not cope with it.
One of the popular beliefs says that before the rain begins, the maple begins to secrete sap and seems to cry. In spring, this phenomenon is considered as a sign of the imminent onset of warmth.
