Maple, possibly? In Rochelle, IL, U.S.

[BurOakTom]

I am going crazy trying to ID this tree. It is in a park in Rochelle, IL, U.S. (north-central IL, hardiness zone 5a). My plant ID apps point towards red maple but I think the trunk furrowing & bark look completely wrong for that.

Pics are at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ormwauovuly90wz/AAAAn7ZqipgNpWJvhgV1frYha . Some are not as sharp as I would like; they are the best I could get at the times I was there (once in mid-summer, the other time early spring), and Rochelle is not close enough that I can revisit it very easily.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Njdelaney]

Maybe it's just a really big Red

 

[macneilh]

acer nigrum

 

[ATH]

I would certainly call #13 Black maple - generally A. Nigrum has smaller or lacking bottom lobes compared to A. saccharum (Sugar maple). 3 lobes vs. 5 lobes is what I've always called the difference.

They can be difficult to tell apart. Some say Black maple leaves droop a little more and are more pubescent on the bottom of the leaf. Pic 04 doesn't look like drooping leaves, so that might look a little more like Sugar. Some sources list Black maple as a subspecies of Sugar maple. Dirr, under A. saccharum, says:
"Also, other references ascribe subspecies or variety status to barbatum, leucoderme, grandidentatum, and nigrum. Ideally do not become frozen with fear relative to the "correct" name. I know of no recent deaths from taxonomic poisoning."

I was going to call that sugar maple all the way until the last pic which changed my vote.

Red maple would have serrations on the leaves...not that. I'm guessing the app doesn't like the 3 distinct lobes.

 

[oldoakman]

My vote is for Black Maple as well

 

[BurOakTom]

Yes, thank you! I definitely think it's Acer nigrum / Acer saccharum subsp. nigrum.

I appreciate the expertise.

 

[macneilh]

on a site visit I’d pin that as a sugar maple all day. until taxonomists reach a consensus I’ll stick with the most distilled answer, which in this case would just be calling it a sugar.

would you guys root prune this? seems to be some root-girdling-root action but I also feel like sugar maples usually end up with a big amorphous root plate anyway - which I’d guess is from crossing roots like these grafting to one another.

 

[ATH]

Roots will graft to roots...but not to the trunk. I might cut the root in #6

 

[BurOakTom]

on a site visit I’d pin that as a sugar maple all day. until taxonomists reach a consensus I’ll stick with the most distilled answer, which in this case would just be calling it a sugar.

Yeah, I certainly see your point.