Box Elder | the squirrel nutwork

Hey There,

I’m back and refreshed from my little weekend off. Hope you humans feel the same, because I have a good mystery for you.

Give me your guesses!

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Well…no guesses? Did no one want to put their paws in their mouth and say it is poison ivy? Good thing, because it’s not! These leaves have five leaflets, and belong to the Box Elder, Acer negundo, a native tree.

That said, the sprouting seeds of this tree are mistaken for poison ivy because they often do have just three leaflets and have the same irregular toothing. However, when it’s grown, the small tree is commonly mistaken for an ash tree and has samaras like a maple, so has quite a few common names to cover those: has-leaved maple, boxelder maple and maple ash.

I’m glad to see we show poison ivy often enough not to fool our readers!

Howdy!

It’s your Colorado Field Correspondent Coney with you again today, taking Hickory’s place to present a mystery plant. I’d like to assure The Squirrel Nutwork readers that the plant I’ve chosen grows other places besides Colorado. Let me know if you recognize it.

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How many of you guessed Poison Ivy? Yes, we have Poison Ivy in Colorado, so good guess, but that’s not this plant. Look again:

Did you notice the stems? Too thick for poison ivy, and those are the plant’s seeds hanging from the branches.

This Poison Ivy look-alike is Box Elder, a tree. Nutmeg says to tell you Box Elder, Acer negundo, is related to Maples. Unlike the many Maples growing in the East, this one–which also lives in the East–has compound leaves and seeds called ‘keys’. Squirrels sometimes eat them.