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Big Tooth Maple

Big-tooth maple (Acer grandidentatum) does well in moderately arid to very arid areas, makes an ideal shade tree for a desert garden, provides an abundance of green in spring and summer, and blazes in color in the fall.

Also known as the Western sugar maple, canyon maple and limerock maple, Big-tooth maple likes higher elevations, between 4,500 and 7,500 feet. Although it prefers well-drained soils, it also grows well in heavy clay. However, it doesn’t like saline or alkaline soils.

The leaves of big-tooth maple are serrated – thus the name ‚”big-tooth.” The leaves are about four inches in diameter with three, four or five lobes fanning out from the center.

Trunk bark is grayish-brown, older twigs are gray and young twigs are bright red to greenish-brown.

Spring and summer foliage is bright green. Fall colors include yellow, red, orange and gold. It is indigenous to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. Big-tooth maple grows wild one the sides of canyon walls and in the mountains. It doesn’t like to keep its feet wet, and likes well-drained soil.

In the wild, the tree rarely grows very large. There, it ranges in size from a large shrub to a small tree.

However, cultivated trees reach an average height of 35 feet, and it has been known to grow as tall as 50 feet. Spread is normally between 20 and 40 feet.

You might try to grow big-tooth maple from cuttings, but don’t expect much success. Even horticulturalists in the southwest have had a difficult time doing that. So far, they’ve only been successful about one percent of the time.

However, it can be grown from seed. In late spring, the tree blooms with little yellow flowers. The fruit can be green or rose colored. They mature in September. You can plant ripe seeds in a cold frame. Those that germinate will emerge in the spring.

However, you can get up to 95 percent germination if you pre-soak the seeds for 24 hours, and then stratify them for two to four months at around 41 degrees (about the temperature inside your refrigerator). Big tooth maple can take a while to germinate- sometimes up to two years, so if you’re starting from seed, don’t get impatient.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of seed germination, you can purchase seedlings from select nurseries.

Good companion plants include natives like chokecherry, gambel oak and mahogany.

Big tooth maple provides food for wildlife and even for domestic animals. Smaller animals, including mammals and birds eat the seeds, flowers and buds. This tree is also slightly allelopathic, which means that it produces a chemical that inhibits the growth of understory plants around it.

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