Sugar Maple
Acer saccharum
A native tree, the sugar maple, also called the rock or hard maple, has a wide range, from Manitoba to Nova Scotia, and from Minnesota to the higher elevations of the central and eastern United States. It is highly valued because it has brilliant autumn foliage and provides heavy shade. It grows at a slow to medium rate and prefers moist, slightly acidic, well-drained soils. It is somewhat drought-tolerant, but sensitive to salt, so should not be planted near roadways and sidewalks where de-icing salts are used. It is intolerant of compaction and pollution so it rarely thrives as a street tree.
The sugar maple is the state tree of Wisconsin, Vermont, New York and West Virginia. Its sap is used to produce maple syrup and maple sugar.
Physical characteristics:
Form: 40’ to 80’ high, with a spread of up to 60’. Its crown is broad, rounded or oval, dense and symmetrical and its branches are opposite.
Leaves: Up to 7 1/2” long and wide, with five distinct palmate lobes, sharp teeth and rounded sinuses. The two outermost lobes are smaller than the other three. In autumn, leaves turn from green to yellow to orange and finally to red. The leaves, unlike those of the Norway maple which they resemble, do not produce a milky white sap, when detached from the tree.
Flowers: Insignificant greenish flowers in early spring. Male and female flowers occur on the same tree.
Fruit: Double samara – paired winged, wind-borne seeds, 1” to ½” long.
Bark: Dark gray-brown with shaggy vertical strips that curl up along the edges.
Check out Thornless Honey locust>>
The sugar maple is the state tree of Wisconsin, Vermont, New York and West Virginia. Its sap is used to produce maple syrup and maple sugar.
Physical characteristics:
Form: 40’ to 80’ high, with a spread of up to 60’. Its crown is broad, rounded or oval, dense and symmetrical and its branches are opposite.
Leaves: Up to 7 1/2” long and wide, with five distinct palmate lobes, sharp teeth and rounded sinuses. The two outermost lobes are smaller than the other three. In autumn, leaves turn from green to yellow to orange and finally to red. The leaves, unlike those of the Norway maple which they resemble, do not produce a milky white sap, when detached from the tree.
Flowers: Insignificant greenish flowers in early spring. Male and female flowers occur on the same tree.
Fruit: Double samara – paired winged, wind-borne seeds, 1” to ½” long.
Bark: Dark gray-brown with shaggy vertical strips that curl up along the edges.
Check out Thornless Honey locust>>
