Species
+

Acer negundo L.

Ashleaf Maple, Box-elder, Ash-leaved maple, Boxelder, California boxelder

Climate known 68 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Acer negundo, also known as the box elder, boxelder maple, Manitoba maple or ash-leaved maple, is a species of maple native to North America from Canada to Honduras. It is a fast-growing, short-lived tree with opposite, ash-like compound leaves. It is sometimes considered a weedy or invasive species, and has been naturalized throughout much of the world, including South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, much of Europe, and parts of Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Acer negundo”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta +65
Wild records
397 in range· 81 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1004mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 104 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1004 mm a year, wettest June at 104 mm, driest February at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -14.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acer interius Britton; Acer negundo f. negundo; Acer negundo subsp. typicum Wesm.; Acer negundo var. interius (Britton) Sarg.; Acer negundo var. normalis Kuntze and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (725 mm of 1004 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 24.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1004 mm a year, wettest June at 104 mm, driest February at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1004 mm a year at the habitat, 725 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 104 mm, driest February at 64 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 508 mm to 1307 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -14.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -14.0 °C, the absolute minimum -26.6 °C, about 108 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.6 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1004 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 300 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost35.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 12–40RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 300 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -4–176 / -2–1911 / 4–2217 / 11–2622 / 18–2927 / 23–3229 / 25–3428 / 24–3424 / 20–3118 / 13–2712 / 6–215 / -1–17
Night °C-4 / -14–6-3 / -11–81 / -6–116 / 1–1511 / 8–1916 / 13–2319 / 16–2418 / 15–2415 / 11–219 / 5–174 / -2–12-2 / -9–7
Rain mm68 / 28–10464 / 31–10672 / 46–11783 / 34–10997 / 33–130104 / 25–12298 / 33–12689 / 37–11889 / 38–11384 / 33–11381 / 36–11075 / 37–112
DLI14 / 11–1920 / 17–2426 / 25–3233 / 31–4037 / 36–4740 / 38–5140 / 38–4835 / 33–4428 / 25–3721 / 17–2714 / 10–2012 / 8–18
RH %59 / 56–6458 / 55–6157 / 55–5955 / 53–5757 / 52–6058 / 53–6058 / 52–6159 / 53–6158 / 54–6158 / 54–6059 / 56–6259 / 57–63

Each figure is the median across the 300 grid cells holding the 387 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 995:2087 (40.225, -75.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 300 distinct grid cells holding the 387 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 995:2087 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected -45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 60 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNorthwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Honduras· introduced: Great Britain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Altay, Buryatiya, Tuva, West Siberia, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea, West Himalaya, Vietnam, New Zealand South, Bolivia, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker40.735, -81.977 · in the densest population, 148 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 397 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 81 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 281 km away. 415 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 397 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Acer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundoAcer negundo

Photographs: (c) Jody Shugart, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); (c) Евгений Егорейченков, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) naturalist charlie, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Acer negundo, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Key to the Quaternary pollen and spores of the Great Lakes region /
John H. McAndrews, Albert A. Berti, Geoffrey Norris (1973) · Royal Ontario Museum eBooks
Forest Overstory Vegetation and Environment on the Missouri River Floodplain in North Dakota
W. Carter Johnson, Robert L. Burgess, Warren R. Keammerer (1976) · Ecological Monographs
Cavitation Fatigue. Embolism and Refilling Cycles Can Weaken the Cavitation Resistance of Xylem
Uwe G. Hacke, Volker Stiller, John S. Sperry, Jarmila Pittermann (2001) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
ASSOCIATIONAL SUSCEPTIBILITY OF COTTONWOOD TO A BOX ELDER HERBIVORE
Jennifer A. White, Thomas G. Whitham (2000) · Ecology
Pollen production in anemophilous trees
Rafael Tormo Molina, Adolfo Muñoz Rodríguez, Inmaculada Silva Palaciso, Francisco Gallardo López (1996) · Grana
SOIL BIOTA FACILITATE EXOTIC ACER INVASIONS IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA
Kurt O. Reinhart, Ragan M. Callaway (2004) · Ecological Applications
Limits to xylem refilling under negative pressure in Laurus nobilis and Acer negundo
Uwe G. Hacke, John S. Sperry (2003) · Plant Cell & Environment
Attachment ability of the beetle Chrysolina fastuosa on various plant surfaces
Elena V. Gorb, Stanislav N. Gorb (2002) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Acer 18 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.