Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum) - yellow flowers, illustrated plant cardIllustration

Bigtooth Maple

Acer grandidentatum

Also called canyon maple, western sugar maple, wasatch maple and rocky mountain sugar maple

Bigtooth Maple blooms from April through May.

Bloom calendar
Bloom time
Apr–May
checked
Hardiness
Zones 5–8
checked
Sun
Full sun
checked
Water
Moderate water
checked
Mature size
35 ft × 25 ft
checked
Type
Tree
house classification

Months here are Northern Hemisphere months; in the Southern Hemisphere, shift them by six months.

Growing Bigtooth Maple

Plant it in full sun. It prefers moderate water. It is hardy in USDA zones 5–8. Expect it to reach about 35 ft tall and 25 ft wide at maturity, in roughly 15 years (a house reading).

Pets

  • Not yet checked for pets.

Lists differ and none is complete. If a pet eats a plant and seems unwell, call a veterinarian or a pet poison helpline.

No toxicity note is on file for Bigtooth Maple. That is not a clearance: check its safety for people and pets before planting.

Verification
What was checked

Nine facts were checked against named botanical sources, each recorded beside the sources that carried it: mature height and spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color, the trait tags, and years to mature size, which rests on a recorded house rule where no publisher states one and is marked so. Soil, diseases, pests, toxicity and the plant's own names have not yet been read for this plant, and its trait tags are the ones a feature uses rather than every word a page prints. Each fact above carries its own mark. The planting, spacing and size sections are derived from these checked facts by a fixed rule, not checked separately, and the plant type is the library's own classification.

See the 8 sources it was checked against

When to plant Bigtooth Maple

Plant Bigtooth Maple in early spring as soon as the soil is workable, or in early fall at least six weeks before your first frost, so roots establish in cool weather. In zone 6, the middle of its hardy zones 5 to 8, spring means March to May and fall means August or September. Once settled, it blooms from April to May.

Month-by-month timing for your zone is on the planting calendar; if you garden near zone 6, the middle of this plant's hardy range, start with zone 6 in March. Derived from the plant's category, zones and bloom months plus typical zone frost dates, not checked separately.

How big does Bigtooth Maple get?

Illustration of Bigtooth Maple drawn to scale beside an adult35 fttall5 ft 7 inan adult25 ftwide
About 35 ft tall and 25 ft wide at maturity: about 6 times as tall as an adult.

See Bigtooth Maple in a garden plan: the planner shows it in 3D beside everything else you add, growing toward this size over the years.

How far apart to plant Bigtooth Maple

Derived from the mature spread above by a fixed rule, not checked separately: spacing is the spread, center to center.

Give Bigtooth Maple about 25 ft of clear ground in every direction, measured from its center. It is one plant with room around it, not a row, and a raised bed is too small for it.

Clear ground around it
25 ft in every direction

Add Bigtooth Maple to a garden plan and the planner draws it at its full width, so you see the spacing before you buy.

Where these facts come from

Bigtooth Maple's height, spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color and trait tags were checked against 8 published sources on October 25, 2026. Each one is linked below with every fact it carried, which can include a fact this page still marks as not yet checked, because a source carrying a value is not the same as the value being held to the standard. Facts not in that list, and the planting, spacing and size sections, are not covered by these sources.

  • Missouri Botanical GardenPlant Finderheight, spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color and trait tags
  • Oregon State UniversityLandscape Plantsheight, spread, hardiness zones, water, bloom months and color and trait tags
  • cwelwnp.usu.eduWestern Native Plants, Larry A. Rupp, Utah State Universityheight, spread, sun, water and bloom months and color
  • facilities.utah.eduUniversity of Utah Tree Tourheight, spread, hardiness zones, sun and bloom months and color
  • research.fs.usda.govUSDA Forest Service Fire Effects Information Systemheight, sun, water, bloom months and color and trait tags
  • University of Florida IFASExtensionheight, spread, hardiness zones, water and bloom months and color
  • nursery.supertrees.comSuperTrees Nurseryheight, spread, hardiness zones and sun
  • RHSRoyal Horticultural Societyheight

How the checking works, and what each standard covers, is on the verified plants page.

Where it grows wild

Native to 10 states

United States: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming

Recorded growing wild in 70 counties.

Range data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 4.0, adapted) and USDA PLANTS. How the native range is credited.

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Drop this plant onto a 3D plan, see how it fills in, and watch your whole garden bloom across the year.

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