Ascending slender tree to 12 m; bark of middle-sized stems with slender white stripes on a greenish background; winter-buds with 2-4 valvate scales; lvs 3-lobed, glabrous at maturity, finely and sharply serrate; infl a slender, peduncled, drooping terminal raceme 3-10 cm, the fls slender-pedicellate, all in each infl commonly of one sex; pet bright yellow, narrowly obovate, 5-8 mm, scarcely surpassing the oblong-oblanceolate sep; disk intrastaminal; mericarps 2.5-3 cm, scarcely veined over the seed, the wings diverging at 90-120л 2n=26. Moist woods; N.S. and s. Que. to n. Minn., s. to N.Y., Pa., Mich., and in the mts. to N.C., Tenn., and n. Ga. May, June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.