island of trees: Black maple, silent sweetie of the Montreal forest

Next tree walk: Parc Westmount, en français, le mercredi 17 août, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. On se rencontre devant les serres à côté de la bibliothèque, 4574, rue Sherbrooke O. Inscription: bronwynchester@gmail.com/514-284-7384, $15. For other treewalks see blog below.

An old black maple grows on the grounds of École secondaire Sophie Barat  not far from the ruins of the original school built in 1858. Note how the unusual leaves consist, mainly, of three shallow lobes, and are soft and fuzzy on the underside and have the overall appearance of being wrinkled. Illustrations: Charles L'Heureux

Forest, forest of Montreal isle, which tree has the sweetest smile?

Ah, good dwellers of the green, the answer is but seldom seen.

Black s/he stands, tall and wide, bark in ridges like red oak’s hide

But the leaves do give the clearest sign, dark green and droopy, with hairs so fine

That when you touch the underside, of this maple leaf unusually wide

You’ll think of velvet, fine suede or antler fuzz, and that is because

The three-lobed leaf, sometimes wilted and curling, is hairy on the underside, once  finished unfurling

Black is the name of this maple so rare, with sap the sweetest of all maple fare.

So next you spot this shy tree, be sure to stop and pay your fee

Not in coin, of course, as Black has no need, but in simple recognition of all it feeds.

I’ve long waited to write about the black maple, Acer nigrum, l’érable noir, but hadn’t found the individual tree that would be easy for you to locate. Like the cottonwood poplars, present along much of the coastline of our island, the black maple has a particular affinity for Montreal. Similar, in size, structure and sap, to the sugar maple – of which it is sometimes considered a subspecies – the black maple, likes a slightly wetter and warmer habitat. It’s territory stretches south and west from Montreal, along the Ottawa river valley and south in the States. In Montreal, the tree is found in the lower lands of such forests as the Bois-de-Saraguay, in the St-Laurent borough.

But it’s difficult to describe the location of a particular tree within a forest --  at least until the forest has some interpretive panels, which the Bois-de-Saraguay ought soon have now that it’s been classified as a Parc nature. However, until that time, I am pleased to direct you to a fine grouping of black maples, some situated in an impressive collection of trees on the grounds of École secondaire Sophie Barat, in the Ahuntsic borough, others just beyond the ruins of an old stone school, next to the high school, in the forested remains of the walled convent that once belonged to Les soeurs de Sacré-Coeur.

The area seems fixed in time; the trees growing close together over uncut grass, give a sense of the bayou. Though the ground was not wet on the hot day we went exploring, it’s clear from the species of trees growing between Gouin Boulevard and the St. Lawrence River, between Georges-Baril and St-Charles avenues, not to mention the shallow valleys in the roads leading to the river – a sure sign of old river beds - that this is a humid spot.

Gouin Boulevard is one of the city’s oldest streets and Sophie Barat, opened in 1858, is one of the oldest schools. Someone, roughly 80 years ago, planted an unusual collection of trees on these grounds, a part of which is the remnant of a graveyard as is evident by the grove of Japanese yew, a common cemetery tree.  Alongside the yews, among what look to be the original trees are catalpas, ginkgo, musclewood (aka American hornbeam and blue beech) sugar maples and at least two black maples. The black and sugar maples are the same height and shape but the colour of the bark and the colour and disposition of the leaves signal difference.

Some leaves of the black maple are so rounded and their three lobes so shallow that they resemble the broad, heart-shaped leaves of the nearby catalpas. Should you be able to reach a leaf or find one on the ground, pick it up and feel the velour of the underside. Do the same with the five-lobed leaf of the nearby sugar maples and you’ll see and sense the difference between these sweet-sapped cousins.

If you venture behind the ruins of the old stone school, you’ll find a pathway into the abandoned forest behind the monastery walls. Head through the woods towards Gouin and you’ll see a long row of old sugar maples mixed in with the black. If you’d like a different view on the maples, follow the stone wall along Gouin, walking west from the high school, then south on St-Charles and you’ll have a good view on the varying shapes of maple leaves as well as the leaves of numerous other species introduced in this column: slippery elm, Manitoba maple, silver maple, red ash and Norway maple, the latter being easy to identify by the fungal spots on the leaves.

What’s heartening is to see so many young black maple growing in the underbrush. There are many native and several rare species, like the black maple and the butternut, growing in this forest remnant. The remediation of this forest, which would involve the removal of the invasive species, such as the Norway maple and the European buckthorn, would be a great, and longlasting, science project for Sophie Barat and create another great spot, close to a concentrated population, for learning and loving our native forest.