[1] The species is solely known from the Latest Paleocene sediments exposed in the Matanuska River Valley, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska.

[1] Acer alaskense was described from a solitary specimen, the holotype (number "USNM 396009"), which is currently preserved in the paleobotanical collections housed at the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.[1] The specimen was studied by paleobotanists Jack A. Wolfe of the United States Geological Survey, Denver office and Toshimasa Tanai of Hokkaido University.

Wolfe and Tanai published their 1987 type description for A. alaskense in the Journal of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University.

A. alaskense is the oldest occurrence of the maple genus, Acer, with the second-oldest being A. douglasense from the Early Eocene sediments of the Paleocene-Eocene West Foreland Formation.

[1] Wolfe and Tanai note that the apparent two-lobed structure may be an aberration and A. alaskense may have typically been three-lobed.