Nevertheless, large silver maple street trees are numerous in many areas and these are sometimes tapped as part of a sugaring operation Like the red maple, silver maple is a relatively shortlived tree when compared to the sugar or black maple, living perhaps yearsThe silver maple grows rapidly and has widely been planted as a shade tree The urbantolerance of the silver maple makes it the longestlived of the maples in urban settings The wood is soft, weak, even textured, rather brittle, easily worked, and decays readily when exposed toSilver leaf is a fungal disease of trees caused by the fungus plant pathogen Chondrostereum purpureum It attacks most species of the rose family Rosaceae, particularly the genus Prunus The disease is progressive and often fatal The common name is taken from the progressive silvering of leaves on affected branches It is spread by airborne spores landing on freshly exposed Silver leaf maple wood
