Acer leucoderme

Chalk Maple is a small, deciduous tree native in the Southeast from NC to Texas. In NC, it occurs in slightly acid to circum-neutral rocky soils, in full sun, part shade and full shade, on riverbanks and ravines in the Piedmont counties. Chalk Maple is desirable because it has all the visual splendor of a full-size Sugar Maple but in diminutive form. Its height at maturity is on the order of twenty-five feet. Its leaves and seed-bearing samaras (which ripen in fall) are smaller and more delicate than those of the Sugar Maple, but its Fall colors are equally superb (yellows, oranges, reds). It is not fussy about moisture, being more drought tolerant than the Sugar Maple or Red Maple. Chalk Maple is often multi-trunked with handsome chalky mature bark, for which it is named, and is very well suited for the upland garden. This tree is seriously underused as a residential ornamental landscape tree. Its seeds attract Grosbeaks, Nuthatches and Finches.