Like most cultivated landscape plants, the silver maple (Acer saccharinum) is known by a number of common names. Soft maple, river maple, silverleaf maple, swamp maple, and water maple are among the more common monikers. Not very creative names, but useful in that they give us a clue as to where silver maples can be found in natural landscapes. We also know silver maples by a few other, somewhat indelicate names that can't (or shouldn't) be repeated in pleasant company. But why do so many weekend gardeners and horticultural experts condemn and ridicule this tough, well-adapted, long-lived native species? Are they truly the monsters of suburbia as they've been made out to be, or have they been unfairly labeled? And is it possible the fault lies with us and not with silver maple at all?

We know silver maples grow fast. We also know they can become very large trees. According to the 2003 Iowa Big Tree List, the champion silver maple in Iowa has grown about 85 feet all and spread close to 100 feet! So we shouldn't be too surprised when each year, large numbers of homeowners decide to plant silver maples in home landscapes instead of waiting 30 years or more for "real shade" from one of the blue-bloods of the shade tree world (sugar maple or white oak, for example).

Besides the obvious, fast growth does have its advantages. If a young silver maple is injured and subsequently attacked by wood decay fungi, it simply produces more wood and rather easily stays several steps ahead of the fungi who work at a steady, but comparatively slower pace. And when the tree is young and healthy, a strategy of out-distancing wood decay fungi seems appropriate and sensible. As long as the tree is pruned once in a while with special attention given to removing co-dominant stems and undesirable branches with included bark, life for the first 30 years or so can be rather uneventful. But like youth, fast growth is not a permanent state, and as the tree ages and its rate of growth slows, reality sets in. Now, internal decay begins to catch up with the tree. And if decay is extensive enough, or is associated with one of those massive side branches silver maples are famous for developing, then we have a problem. And what about those side branches? Can any tree be expected to support a branch whose diameter is only slightly smaller than that of the trunk?

So, who or what is to be blamed when a silver maple comes crashing down onto the roof of a house, a car, or residential street? Do we chastise the silver maple because it grows fast, and maybe more importantly, doesn't know when to quit growing? And should we admonish the species for having such a poor strategy for defending itself? What tree in their right mind would rely on rapid growth instead of the time-honored practice of compartmentalizing or walling-off injured or decaying wood?

Of course, playing the blame game with trees, especially silver maple, is counterproductive and childish. Because as Antoine de Saint-Exupery once wrote, and as the late Dr. Alex Shigo was famous for quoting, "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." In essence, we have tamed the silver maple. At least we have tried to tame them by harvesting trees from stream banks, flood plains, and lake edges and planting them next to our homes, garages, and businesses. But because you never really can tame a tree like silver maple that is, shall we say, unpredictable, then at the very least we must assume responsibility for them when they perform as we knew they could.

Therefore, the next time you encounter a grand old silver maple, walk up to it and make peace. Appreciate its massive limbs and marvel at its ability to support the weight that very few deciduous trees in the Midwest ever have to contend with. You might even hoist yourself up onto one of its massive side branches, just like you did when you were a kid. But don't be fooled into thinking you could be the one to beat the odds. That you could plant and care for the perfect silver maple that would never drop a limb or cause a sleepless night. For the same reasons that Bengal tigers don't make great house pets, you're better off leaving the silver maple in the park, cemetery, golf course, or arboretum where they belong.