box elder

plural box elders · alternative boxelder · alternative box-elder

1. countableuncountableAcer negundo, a North American maple.

   We crossed during the morning a number of hollows, timbered principally with box elder, (acer negundo,) poplar, and elm.

   1845, J[ohn] C[harles] Frémont, Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-’44, Washington: Gales and Seaton, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 21

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   The little valleys nestling along the streams are diversified by bordering willows, clumps of box elder, and small groves of cottonwood.

   1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 32