USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 3a-8b (9 in cool-summer climates) Find Your Zone

Plant Type:  Deciduous Shade Tree or Large Shrub

Flower Color:  Yellow

Flower Size:  Insignificant

Flowering Period:  Spring

Fragrant Flowers:  na

Foliage Color:  Green turning Yellow in the Fall

Fragrant Foliage:  No

Fruit: Green Samaras

Attracts:  Birds, Beneficial Pollinators, Visual Attention

Resistances:  Black Walnut Resistant, Clay Soil, Deer, Disease, Drought, Heat, Sun

Acer negundo, 'Winter Lightning,' is a lovely Box Elder Maple featuring yellow stems and twigs during the winter. The showy bright-yellow bark is present year-round, but it shines the most in winter when there are no leaves to hide it. It is a fast-growing North American native tree that typically reaches 20 to 30 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide, depending on how you grow it. It naturally grows as a large multi-stemmed shrub-like tree; however, it can be trained to be an attractive single-trunk tree form. Except for Alaska and Hawaii, it will grow in almost every state in the U.S., even North Dakota, where deciduous trees usually won't grow. Although it's a maple, it differs from most other species because it has odd-pinnate compound leaves, each with 3 to 5-toothed leaflets resembling ash trees. The leaves are a light to medium green through the warm season turning to shades of yellow in the fall. Samaras are green turning yellow, in long drooping clusters that appear in the fall. A fantastic statement tree, hedge, or screen that is sure to be a conversation piece.

The name Box Elder came from the use of its wood for making wooden boxes and crates. Plains Indians made sugar from the sap, when sugar was scarce and Prairie settlers sometimes tapped this tree to make maple syrup.