Acer taggarti is an extinct maple species in the family Sapindaceae described from a number of fossil leaves and samaras.

[1][2] The Mascall formation is composed of temporary lake beds interbedded with lava flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group.

The climatic optimum and low topological relief resulted in a paleoclimate that was temperate and humid, experiencing cool to cold winters and warm dry summers.

[3] Leaves from the Mascall formation were examined by Ralph Chaney and Daniel Axelrod in their 1959 Miocene floras of the Columbia Plateau.

The Acer fossils were re-studied by paleobotanists Jack A. Wolfe of the United States Geological Survey, Denver office and Toshimasa Tanai of Hokkaido University.

[1] The etymology of the chosen specific name taggarti is in recognition of Ralph E. Taggart, who supplied access to collections of Succor Creek Formation fossils and for his work on successional aspects of Neogene plant assemblages.

[1] Based on the vein structuring in the fruits, Wolfe and Tanai inferred that the middle miocene Acer whitebirdense was a probable descendant of A. kenaicum, known from the Oligocene of Alaska.