My busywork assignment for Tree Biology

The maple tree reproduces sexually. Using flowers that bloom before the leaves even emerge, probably to key into a source of pollinators at that time. The pollinated flowers grow into winged seeds that can be carried impressive distances by the wind which allows for gene flow over a larger area than for example, the heavy seeded oak. I think one of the key reasons these winged seeds work is because they sprout very readily. In missoula, a related species the norway maple sprouts in the shade of hedges, from between cracks in the pavement, and anywhere else you can imagine. In Vermont however they are not quite as prolific on diverse sites, but rather keying into an understory where it is surrounded by other maples. Maple trees affect the soil that they grow in, like many climax species of hardwoods, to be favorable to their own kind and disfavorable to others.

I would expect that at my site, Hubbard Park, the maples have quite a bit of genetic diversity. this is because in the middle of the state there is plenty of sexual recombination to be had with no barriers between maples, so much so that I might refer to the maples of the entire state as but one population, though there are places where they don't grow, the distances between two maple flowers is never too great a journey for a springtime bee.