A common medium-sized maple of the Mountains, Striped Maple is named for its distinctive green bark with whitish stripes (see below).
Clay Co., NC 5/12/06.
The leaves are similar to Mountain Maple (A. spicatum), a species found at higher elevations in the Mountains, but are more finely toothed and yellow-hairy (instead of white-hairy) beneath. The easiest way to tell the two apart is the bark, which is gray-brownish in Mountain Maple.
Striped Maple can be easily told from the abundant Red Maple (A. rubrum) by the bark as well as the larger and much longer-pointed leaves.
Alleghany Co., NC 9/3/06.
The inflorescence is in a drooping raceme, unlike the upright panicle of Mountain Maple.
Clay Co., NC 5/12/06.
