North Dakota State Tree

Description: Large, handsome, graceful tree, often with enlarged buttresses at base, usually forked into many spreading branches, drooping at ends, forming a very broad, rounded, flat-topped or vaselike crown, often wider than high.
Height: 100' (30 m).
Diameter: 4' (1.2 m), sometimes much larger.
Leaves: in 2 rows; 3-6" (7.5-15 cm) long, 1-3" (2.5-7.5 cm) wide. Elliptical, abruptly long-pointed, base rounded with sides unequal; doubly saw-toothed; with many straight parallel side veins; thin. Dark green and usually hairless or slightly rough above, paler and usually with soft hairs beneath; turning bright yellow in autumn.
Bark: light gray; deeply furrowed into broad, forking, scaly ridges.
Twigs: brownish, slender, hairless.
Flowers: 1/8" (3 mm) wide; greenish; clustered along twigs in early spring.
Fruit: 3/8-1/2" (10-12 mm) long; elliptical flat 1-seeded keys (samaras), with wing hairy on edges, deeply notched with points curved inward; long-stalked; maturing in early spring.

Habitat: Moist soils, especially valleys and flood plains; in mixed hardwood forests.

Range: SE. Saskatchewan east to Cape Breton Island, south to central Florida, and west to central Texas; to 2,500' (762 m).

Comments: This well-known, once abundant species, familiar on lawns and city streets, has been ravaged by the Dutch Elm disease, caused by a fungus introduced accidentally about 1930 and spread by European and native elm bark beetles. The wood is used for containers, furniture, and paneling.