Acer saccharinum Silver maples, wrote naturalist Donald Peattie, “impart to every stream and bank where they grow, to every big red Hoosier barn and little white farmhouse, to all the village streets and the long straight roads where they have been planted, an air at once of dignity and lively grace, a combination rare in a tree as in a human.” Elders among the silver maples are a friendly sight in communities throughout America. Their massive trunks remind us of…
