Manor Township Community Park, 2670 Charlestown Road, Lancaster PA (in open, at highest point)
Boxelder Maple often has multiple trunks and this specimen is a prime example. The tree’s size is difficult to define: The trunks spread out at ground level so a single measurement can’t include them all. One could measure just the largest trunk but that would ignore 80% of the tree (see “Special Topics: Measuring Trees”). Regardless, this is an exceptionally large Boxelder with intriguing architecture.
This tree is a female (unlike most maples, A. negundo is dioecious — male and female trees are separate and Boxelders can’t self-fertilize).
This amazing species, the only maple with compound leaves that sport more than three leaflets, was utilized by Native American tribes for such uses as incense, charcoal, tattooing, sugar, pipe stems, painting, bowls and dishes, drums, medicines and flutes. The Boxelder Bug is a namesake.
