box elder vs maple

box elder and maple both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
box elder	Yes	No	No	No
maple	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, maple is a hypernym of box elder; that is, maple is a word with a broader meaning than box elder:

box elder: common shade tree of eastern and central United States
maple: any of numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Acer bearing winged seeds in pairs; north temperate zone

box elder (noun)	maple (noun)
common shade tree of eastern and central United States	any of numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Acer bearing winged seeds in pairs; north temperate zone
	wood of any of various maple trees; especially the hard close-grained wood of the sugar maple; used especially for furniture and flooring