Credits

Created by Stephanie Bilodeau, Explore Natural Communities Intern Summer 2017, NatureServe.

Sounds: Indigo Bunting, and River Sounds, recorded by ENC Interns 2017. Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0. Rain and Thunder Strikes, recorded by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0.

Music: Dreamy Flashback, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0.

Photo: Silver Maple Reflection, by Stephanie Bilodeau, courtesy of NatureServe. Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

References:
Silver Maple
American Sycamore
Riverscour Woodlands and Prairies

Transcript

Podcast time: 3:49 minutes

[music starts] Standing on the trail, look up at the canopy of silvery leaves above you. These beautiful trees are appropriately named silver maples . They're a key part of this streamside community, the Silver Maple Floodplain Forest.

Silver maples grow best in deep, moist soil and need lots of sun. Streambanks are the perfect place to find them. Squirrels love to eat the early spring buds of silver maple trees, and the leafy canopy provides a nesting place for birds.

In the understory, you can find box-elders , a very different type of maple whose jagged, dark green leaflets often come in threes and look a lot like poison ivy . If you don't spot any of the five-branched leaves that set them apart, be careful and just don't touch!

Both box-elder and silver maple are water-tolerant trees. Even though they can withstand short periods of flooding, these maples still need mostly-dry ground to grow in throughout the year. [music fades out]

[sound of running water] Now look down at the gravely patch at the very edge of the river. Do you notice those funny little, stunted trees that are all bent over?

Those are young American sycamores , and they love wet conditions! They're easily distinguished by their broad, spiky leaves and can tolerate far more flooding than the silver maple and box-elder trees higher up the banks. See how the saplings all bend in the same direction? That's because the floodwaters pushed them that way when the river rose after a heavy rain. You can see how high the water may have come in the past by looking for clumps of grass, leaves, and driftwood caught in the sycamore branches.

The trees and other plants in this gravely area are part of another natural community called Riverscour Woodland, which floods frequently. It may not seem like an ideal spot to grow, but since sycamores are one of the only trees that can survive here, they don't have to compete with many other plants for light and nutrients. Bright sunshine helps this woodland grow. Grasses and other herbs are an important part of the Riverscour Woodland.

[sound of storms/rain] However, the big, dramatic floods that happen on the Monocacy River every 5-10 years can wipe out even these hardy sycamores, which is why most of the stunted saplings here may be less than 10 years old. Floods break the branches of trees or may topple and uproot them.

Although these saplings may not survive long, sycamores can actually live for hundreds of years higher up on a bank or slope in conditions that are more stable than the middle of a river! [music starts] As you continue your walk through the Silver Maple Floodplain Forest, you'll probably spot some big sycamore trees sharing the canopy with the silver maples.

The Silver Maple Floodplain Forest and the Riverscour Woodland have a lot in common, but they’re not exactly alike. Near the river, the difference of just a few feet in elevation can completely change the character of a natural community due to the depth of the water and the frequency of flooding. Both of these communities are part of the dynamic streamside landscape. In a few years, this Riverscour Woodland and all the species it supports may have shifted to another part of the stream, but the Silver Maple Floodplain Forest is here to stay!

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