Acer spicatum

Mountain maple is in the soapberry or Sapindaceae family and is native to northeastern North America from Saskatchewan to Newfoundland, and south to Pennsylvania. It is a shrub or small tree growing to 8 m tall.

• Leaves are opposite, simple, up to 10 cm long and equally wide, with 3 or 5 shallow palmate lobes, coarsely and irregularly toothed. Leaves turn red and yellow in the fall.
• Species is monoecious; flowers are yellow-green, small, clustered, hanging from upright slender stems.
• Fruit is a pair of samaras 2–3 cm long, spreading less than 90 degrees; samara mature in late summer.