Description of the Plant

Leaf: Dull dark green above, paler and often hairy on the underneath side. Leaves are long and wide, palmately lobed with 5 deep long pointed lobes and few long pointed teeth. There are 5 main veins from the base and leafstalks are long and often hairy. Leaves turn deep red, orange, and yellow in the autumn.9-14 cm in length.

Flower: 5mm long with bell-shaped 5 lobed yellowish-green calyx. Male and female hang in drooping clusters on long slender hairy stalks, with new leaves in the early spring.

Fruit: 2.5-3 cm in length including a long wing and paired forking keys that are brown and contain one seed that matures in the autumn.

Twig: Greenish to brown or gray and slender.

Bark: Light gray, rough and deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.

Form: Large tree with rounded, dense crown and multicolored foliage in the autumn.

Discussion of the Plant

The sap of this tree can be boiled and used as a commercial source of maple sugar or syrup. Colonists learned this process from the Native Americans. Each tree can yield between 5 and 60 gallons of sap each year. It takes 32 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup or 4.5 pounds of sugar. Sugar Maple is among the leading furniture woods. This species is also used for flooring, boxes, crates, and veneer.

Copyright

Sue Grabowski, Gail Slowinski, Carl Schurz High School 2003

References

Coombes, Allen, J, Smithsonian Handbook of Trees, Dorling Kindersley, London, 2002.

Little, Elbert, L., Field Guide to Trees, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1980.

Symonds, George, W.D., The Tree Identification Book, Quill Publishing, New York, N.Y. 1958.