Vine maple is the small, sprawling maple of Mt. Hood’s west-side forests. In open ground it forms a dense clump of upright stems that can reach about 30 feet, but in the shade of big conifers its stems lean, arch and sometimes lie along the ground. Wherever a stem touches soil it can take root, and under old-growth forest this layering is almost the only way it reproduces.
The leaves are what most people notice: nearly round, with seven to nine pointed, toothed lobes, like a small open hand. In spring, small flowers with purplish sepals and white petals hang in loose clusters, and by summer they have become pairs of rosy, winged seeds spread out almost flat, like a tiny propeller. In autumn the leaves turn shades of yellow and red and light up the understory.
Elk and black-tailed deer eat the leaves in summer and hide in the thickets, and squirrels and chipmunks eat the seeds. Birds use maple leaves and seed stalks to build nests. Most fires only kill the stems, and the plant sprouts again from its root crown.
Look for vine maple along streams, in forest openings and clearcuts, and on rocky talus slopes, mostly at lower elevations on the west side of the Cascades. Autumn is the best time to notice it.
How to identify it
A many-stemmed shrub or small tree with smooth, thin bark that is reddish brown to greenish. Leaves are opposite, nearly circular, about 1 to 4 inches across, with 7 to 9 toothed lobes. Paired winged seeds spread almost straight out from each other, in a nearly flat line.
Look-alikes
Bigleaf maple has much larger leaves, often 6 to 12 inches across with five lobes, grows into a tall tree, and its paired seeds meet at a right angle. Rocky Mountain maple has leaves with three main lobes, and its seed wings also meet at about a right angle, while vine maple's spread out almost flat.
Habitat
Understory of moist Douglas-fir, western hemlock and western redcedar forests, plus streambanks, openings, clearcuts and talus. In Oregon it grows almost only on the west side of the Cascades, mostly below about 3,000 feet in the northern part of the state.
Sightings in the forest
496 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 21, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →