ACERACEAE
Sugar Maple. Hard Maple. Rock Maple
Acer saccharum Marsh. [Acer saccharinum Wang.]
HABIT.—A stately tree 60-100 feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 3-4 feet; in the open forming stout, upright branches near the ground, in forests making remarkably clean trunks to a good height; the crown is a broad, round-topped dome.
LEAVES.—Opposite, simple, 3-5 inches long and broad; usually 5-lobed (sometimes 3-lobed), the lobes sparingly wavy-toothed, the sinuses broad and rounded at the base; thin and firm; opaque, dark green above, lighter and glabrous beneath, turning yellow and red in autumn; petioles long, slender.
FLOWERS.—May, with the leaves; polygamo-monoecious or dioecious; on thread-like, hairy pedicels in nearly sessile corymbs; greenish yellow; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed; corolla 0; stamens 7-8; ovary hairy.
FRUIT.—September-October, germinating the following spring; paired samaras, glabrous, with wings about 1 inch long, diverging slightly.
WINTER-BUDS.—Small, acute, red-brown, glabrous or somewhat pubescent toward the apex, the terminal 1/4 inch long, the lateral smaller, appressed.
BARK.—Twigs smooth, pale brown, becoming gray and smooth on the branches; old trunks dark gray, deeply furrowed, often cleaving up at one edge in long, thick plates.
WOOD.—Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough, durable, light brown, with thin, lighter colored sapwood.