Acer saccharum, the sugar maple or rock maple, is a species
of maple native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada, from
Nova Scotia west through Quebec and southern Ontario to southeastern
Manitoba around Lake of the Woods, and the northern parts of the
Central and Eastern United States, from Minnesota eastward to the
highlands of the eastern states. Sugar maple is best known for its
bright fall foliage and for being the primary source of maple syrup.
Description
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Seasonal
leaf color change
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Acer saccharum is a deciduous tree normally reaching heights
of 2535 m (80115 ft), and exceptionally up to
45 m (148 ft). A 10-year-old tree is typically about 5 m (16
ft) tall. When healthy, the sugar maple can live for over
400 years.
The leaves are deciduous, up to 20 cm (7.9 in) long and
equally wide,[4] with five palmate lobes. The basal lobes
are relatively small, while the upper lobes are larger and
deeply notched. In contrast with the angular notching of the
silver maple, however, the notches tend to be rounded at their
interior. The fall color is often spectacular, ranging from
bright yellow on some trees through orange to fluorescent
red-orange on others. Sugar maples also have a tendency to
color unevenly in fall. In some trees, all colors above can
be seen at the same time. They also share a tendency with
red maples for certain parts of a mature tree to change color
weeks ahead of or behind the remainder of the tree. The leaf
buds are pointy and brown-colored. The recent year's growth
twigs are green, and turn dark brown.
The flowers are in panicles of five to 10 together, yellow-green
and without petals; flowering occurs in early spring after
3055 growing degree days.
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Sugar
maple
Sugar
maple foliage
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Acer
saccharum
Marshall
Native
range of Acer saccharum
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The sugar maple will generally begin flowering when it is between
10 and 15 years old. The fruit is a pair of samaras (winged seeds).
The seeds are globose, 710 mm (9/3213/32 in) in diameter,
the wing 23 cm (3/41 1/4 in) long. The seeds
fall from the tree in autumn, where they must be exposed to 90 days
of temperatures below -18 °C (0 °F) to break their coating
down. Germination of A. saccharum is slow, not taking place until
the following spring when the soil has warmed and all frost danger
is past.[7][need quotation to verify] It is closely related to the
black maple, which is sometimes included in this species, but sometimes
separated as Acer nigrum. The western American bigtooth maple (Acer
grandidentatum) is also treated as a variety or subspecies of sugar
maple by some botanists.
The sugar maple can be confused with the Norway maple, which
is not native to America but is commonly planted in cities and suburbs,
and they are not closely related within the genus. The sugar maple
is most easily identified by clear sap in the leaf petiole (the
Norway maple has white sap), brown, sharp-tipped buds (the Norway
maple has blunt, green or reddish-purple buds), and shaggy bark
on older trees (the Norway maple bark has small grooves). Also,
the leaf lobes of the sugar maple have a more triangular shape,
in contrast to the squarish lobes of the Norway maple.[citation
needed]. The bark of the two trees is not similar at all.
Although many people think a red sugar maple leaf is featured
on the flag of Canada, the official maple leaf does not belong to
any particular maple species; although it perhaps most closely resembles
a sugar maple leaf of all the maple species in Canada, the leaf
on the flag was specially designed to be as identifiable as possible
on a flag waving in the wind without regard to whether it resembled
a particular species' foliage.
Ecology
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Sugar
maple-yellow birch forest, Jacques-Cartier National Park,
Quebec, Canada
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The sugar maple is an extremely important species to the ecology
of many forests in the northern United States and Canada. Pure stands
are common, and it is a major component of the northern and Midwestern
U.S. hardwood forests.
Sugar maple is native to areas with cooler climates. In northern
parts of its range, January temperatures average about -18 °C
(0 °F) and July temperatures about 16 °C (61 °F); in
southern parts, January temperatures average about 10 °C (50
°F) and July temperatures average almost 27 °C (81 °F).
Acer saccharum is among the most shade tolerant of large deciduous
trees. Its shade tolerance is exceeded only by the striped maple,
a smaller tree. Like other maples, its shade tolerance is manifested
in its ability to germinate and persist under a closed canopy as
an understory plant, and respond with rapid growth to the increased
light formed by a gap in the canopy. The sugar maple can grow comfortably
in any type of soil except sand.
Sugar maples engage in hydraulic lift, drawing water from lower
soil layers and exuding that water into upper, drier soil layers.
This not only benefits the tree itself, but also many other plants
growing around it.
Human influences have contributed to the decline of the sugar
maple in many regions. Its role as a species of mature forests has
led it to be replaced by more opportunistic species in areas where
forests are cut over. The sugar maple also exhibits a greater susceptibility
to pollution than other species of maple. Acid rain and soil acidification
are some of the primary contributing factors to maple decline. Also,
the increased use of salt over the last several decades on streets
and roads for deicing purposes has decimated the sugar maple's role
as a street tree.
In some parts of New England, particularly near urbanized areas,
the sugar maple is being displaced by the Norway maple. The Norway
maple is also highly shade tolerant, but is considerably more tolerant
of urban conditions, resulting in the sugar maple's replacement
in those areas. In addition, Norway maple produces much larger crops
of seeds, allowing it to out-compete native species.
Cultivation and uses
Maple syrup
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Collecting
sap from sugar maples
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The sugar maple is one of the most important Canadian trees,
being, with the black maple, the major source of sap for making
maple syrup Other maple species can be used as a sap source for
maple syrup, but some have lower sugar contents and/or produce more
cloudy syrup than these two. Some other trees (birch, ash, etc.)
can yield a useful syrup as well, though with different flavors.
In maple syrup production from Acer saccharum, the sap is extracted
from the trees using a tap placed into a hole drilled through the
phloem, just inside the bark. The collected sap is then boiled.
As the sap boils, the water is evaporated off and the syrup left
behind. 40 litres of maple sap are required to be boiled to produce
only 1 litre of pure syrup. This is the reason for the high cost
of pure maple syrup.
Timber
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Ultra-thin
sugar maple sections from Romeyn Beck Hough's American Woods.
From top to bottom, the image displays transverse, radial
and tangential sections. The image on the right shows light
passing through the specimens.
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The sapwood can be white, and smaller logs may have a higher
proportion of this desirable wood. Bowling alleys and bowling pins
are both commonly manufactured from sugar maple. Trees with wavy
woodgrain, which can occur in curly, quilted, and "birdseye
maple" forms, are especially valued. Maple is also the wood
used for basketball courts, including the floors used by the NBA,
and it is a popular wood for baseball bats, along with white ash.
It is also widely used in the manufacture of musical instruments,
such as the members of the violin family (sides and back), guitars
(neck), and drum shells. It is also often used in the manufacture
of sporting goods.
Canadian maple, often referred to as "Canadian hardrock
maple", is prized for pool cues, especially the shafts. Some
production-line cues will use lower-quality maple wood with cosmetic
issues, such as "sugar marks", which are most often light
brown discolorations caused by sap in the wood. The best shaft wood
has a very consistent grain, with no marks or discoloration. Sugar
marks usually do not affect how the cue plays, but are not as high
quality as those without it. The wood is also used in gunstocks
and flooring for its strength.
Urban planting
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Sugar
maple in a suburban landscape
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The sugar maple was a favorite street and park tree during the
19th century because it was easy to propagate and transplant, is
fairly fast-growing, and has beautiful fall color.[contradictory]
As noted above, however, it proved too delicate to continue in that
role after the rise of automobile-induced pollution and was replaced
by Platanus occidentalis and other hardier species. The shade and
the shallow, fibrous roots may interfere with grass growing under
the trees. Deep, well-drained loam is the best rooting medium, although
sugar maples can grow well on sandy soil which has a good buildup
of humus. Light (or loose) clay soils are also well known to support
sugar maple growth. Poorly drained areas are unsuitable, and the
species is especially short-lived on flood-prone clay flats. Its
salt tolerance is low and it is very sensitive to boron.[citation
needed] The species is also subject to defoliation when there are
dense populations of larvae of Lepidoptera species like the rosy
maple moth (Dryocampa rubicunda).
Cultivars
- 'Apollo' columnar
- 'Arrowhead' pyramidal crown
- 'Astis' ('Steeple') heat-tolerant, good in southeastern
USA, oval crown
- 'Bonfire' fast growing
- 'Caddo' naturally occurring southern ecotype or subspecies,
from Southwestern Oklahoma, great drought and heat tolerance,
good choice for the Great Plains region[18]
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Closeup
of autumn foliage
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'Columnare' ('Newton Sentry') very narrow
- 'Fall Fiesta' tough-leaved, colorful in season, above-average
hardiness
- 'Goldspire' columnar with yellow-orange fall color
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'Green Mountain' (PNI 0285) durable foliage resists
heat and drought, oval crown, above-average hardiness
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'Inferno' possibly the hardiest cultivar, with more
red fall color than 'Lord Selkirk' or 'Unity'
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'Legacy' tough, vigorous and popular
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'Lord Selkirk' very hardy, more upright than other
northern cultivars
- 'Monumentale' columnar
- 'September Flare' - very hardy, early orange-red fall color
- 'Sweet Shadow' lacy foliage
- 'Temple's Upright' almost as narrow as 'Columnare'
- 'Unity' very hardy, from Manitoba, slow steady growth
Use by Native Americans
The Mohegan use the inner bark as a cough remedy, and the sap
as a sweetening agent and to make maple syrup.[19]
Big Tree
One current national champion of sugar maple is located in Charlemont,
Massachusetts. In 2007, it had a circumference of 19.42 ft (5.92
m), or an average diameter at breast height of about 6.18 ft (1.88
m). The maple tree had been 112 ft (34.1 m) tall with a crown spread
of 91 ft (27.7 m), counting for a total number of 368 points at
the National Register of Big Trees.[20] Another national co-champion
in Lyme, Connecticut, measured in 2012, had a circumference of 18.25
feet (5.56 m), or an average diameter at breast height of about
5.8 feet (1.77 m). This tree had been 123 ft (37.5 m) tall with
a crown spread of 86 ft (26.2 m), counting for a total number of
364 points.[21]
In popular culture
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Leafless
sugar maples in Vermont state quarter
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The sugar maple is the state tree of the US states of New York,
Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
It is depicted on the statequarter of Vermont, issued
in 2001.
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