Sugar Maple
SUGAR MAPLE
(Acer saccharum)
Shape at first with narrowly oval head, gradually becoming broad topped; up to 120 ft. tall. Trunk stout and often lofty. Bark light gray brown, finally furrowed and separating into small scales. Leaves 4-5 in. across, dark and thickish, turning brilliant shades in autumn, of deep red, scarlet, orange and clear yellow. Range: s. Newf. to Minn., e. Tex. and w. Fla. This noble tree, which makes glorious in fall the quiet streets of old villages in N. E. and e. Can., has heavy strong pale wood valued for interior finish, tool handles, keels and shoe-lasts. Accidental forms with contorted grain yield “bird’s-eye maple,” to the cabinet maker. When the sap rises, from Feb. to April, the trunk is tapped and the sap made into maple sugar and maple syrup. ROCKY MOUNTAIN MAPLE (Acer grandidentaum) has the leaf lobes with lobe-like, sinuous big teeth. Wyo. to Utah, N. Mex., and Mex.
Oregon Maple
OREGON MAPLE
(Acer macrophyllum)
Shape compactly round headed; to 80 ft. tall. Bark gray, divided into narrow, ribbon-like, braiding ridges, sometimes cross marked into small squarish plates. Leaves 3-15 in. long, turning brilliant orange in autumn. Flowers with conspicuous petals, fragrant. Range: Alaska to the mts. of s. Calif. This stately colorful timber tree is often associated with Sequoia, when, “with their slender stems and large graceful leaves nicely balanced on the long stalks against the faint light filtered through the high forest canopy, they are in pointed contrast to the titanic features of the Redwood.” (Jepson). BLACK MAPLE (Acer nigrum) is very like Sugar Maple but the leaves are concave, drooping, and the undersides are downy, not paler. L. Champlain through s. Ont. to s. Kans. and e. Okla. Along the uplands to Ga. and Ala. and centr. Miss. Scarcely distinguished by most people, it too produces Maple Sugar.
Silver Maple