Boxelder (Acer negundo): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Acer negundo L. in USDA PLANTS, maple family
Other names	Ashleaf maple, boxelder maple, Manitoba maple, California boxelder and western boxelder (Silvics); ash-leaf maple and three-leaf maple (USDA PLANTS)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and the lower 48 states
Size and age, Silvics	A small to medium-size tree reaching 15 to 23 m (50 to 75 ft) tall and 60 to 120 cm (24 to 48 in) in diameter; short-lived, attaining an average age of 60 years and rarely 100 years
Growth, Silvics	Very rapid in the first 15 to 20 years, possibly as much as 2.5 cm (1 in) a year in diameter; in western Minnesota windbreaks, diameter growth averaged less than 5 mm (0.2 in) per year over the first 13 years after planting
Form and roots, Silvics	A short, tapering bole and bushy, spreading crown; usually a shallow, fibrous root system, with a short taproot and strong laterals on deep soils
Shade, Silvics	Generally classed as tolerant of shade, although less so than the other soft maples
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	50 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 2, 1990) calls boxelder the most widely distributed of all the North American maples, ranging from coast to coast and from Canada to Guatemala. In the United States it is found from New York to central Florida; west to southern Texas; and northwest through the Plains to eastern Alberta, central Saskatchewan and Manitoba; and east in southern Ontario. Further west it is found along watercourses in the middle and southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau, and in California in the Central Valley, the interior valleys of the Coast Range and the western slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains. The handbook says it has been naturalized in New England, southern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and in the Pacific Northwest in southeastern Washington and eastern Oregon; USDA PLANTS records it as native in the lower 48 states and Canada.

Best development is in the bottom-land hardwood stands of the lower Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, where the handbook says it is of limited commercial importance. It grows on virtually all soil types, from heavy clays to pure sands, and the handbook says it has been known to survive inundation as long as 30 days.

Flowers and sprouting

Silvics says boxelder is dioecious with imperfect flowers, although perfect flowers that appeared to be functional have been reported. Reproduction by stump and root sprouts is common from young, vigorous trees. In the lower Ohio and Mississippi valleys it usually follows the pioneer cottonwood and willow in colonizing new alluvial ground, and in some cases is a pioneer itself in old fields.

Planting and uses

The handbook says boxelder has been widely planted in the Great Plains and at lower elevations in the West as a street tree and in windbreaks because of its drought and cold resistance, and it describes the tree as not an ideal ornamental, being trashy, poorly formed and short-lived. It reports use in erosion control in some parts of the world, many bird and mammal species eating the seeds and other parts, and limited use of the sap for syrup.

Wood

Silvics says boxelder has limited commercial value and usually appears in mixed stands. The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) puts boxelder in the soft maple group with silver maple, red maple and bigleaf maple; the group is described on the red maple page. Table 5-3b has no boxelder row, so no strength figures are given here. The green weight of the wood without bark is in the NRS-38 table, shown in the glance table above and used in the log weight calculator.

Diseases, insects and damage the handbook names

Silvics (1990) names these agents.

Rot fungi. The chief rot-causing fungi are Fomitopsis fraxinus, Perenniporia fraxinophilus, Fomes geotropus, Fomitopsis scutellata, Inonotus glomeratus and Ustulina vulgaris. Root rots caused by Rhizoctonia crocorum and Phymatotrichum omnivorum have been identified, but the handbook says Armillaria mellea has not been reported on the species although it is common on other maples.
Verticillium wilt. Named as the one disease of note that kills boxelder; the handbook also lists a stem canker caused by Eutypella parasitica.
Red stain. A red stain in the wood of living trees caused by a Fusarium fungus that the handbook says appears specific to boxelder and does no damage to the wood itself.
Insects. Damage is called relatively unimportant. The boxelder bug is a common associate throughout most of the range, feeding mainly on female trees; the handbook says the trees are not greatly damaged but the insect's habit of invading houses in large numbers as cold weather arrives makes it an important pest. The boxelder aphid, boxelder gall midge, several leaf feeders, cottony maple scale, terrapin scale, the boxelder twig borer and the flatheaded apple tree borer are also listed.
Weather, fire and herbicide drift. Ice and wind damage is called common in older trees, the thin bark makes the tree quite susceptible to fire and mechanical damage, and the handbook says it is highly sensitive to a herbicide, with spray drift in the northern Great Plains producing distorted, blighted foliage up to 16 km (10 mi) from the source.

The guide on reporting a pest in the United States and the Canada reporting page give the offices that take sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.