Maple

Scientific name: Acer campestre

Common name: Maple

It populates large areas of Europe and Asia Minor, preferring flat and hilly terrain. The bark is brown and cracked into rectangular plates. Thin, down-covered branches spread from the trunk, unlike other Italian maples. Its rounded crown is modest in size, but it is highly valued by animals for the many nutrients contained in its leaves.

Its leaves are used as fodder, and being a tree of modest size with a high shear strength, it has been used extensively as a vine rootstock. It is also an excellent fuel, once especially common in the Po Valley. Ancient folk beliefs gave the maple tree magical properties against witches, bats, and bad luck. According to another folk belief it seems that by passing a child through the branches of the field maple, it is guaranteed long life.

In French folklore, the maple’s nuts symbolize 58 years of marriage, due to a glitch in the translation, since “nuptials” and “nuts” both translate as “noces”.

Finally, there is a more recent story that one of the inventors of the helicopter, Sikorsky, was inspired by seeing a maple seed fall.

This plant is not used directly for human nutrition, but bees produce excellent honey from its blossoms. The roasted seeds replaced coffee. Having mild anticoagulant properties, it helps in the prevention of calculosis and in treatment of herpes outbreaks. The bark infusion is also used as an intestinal refresher and for skin erythema.