The shining sumac, Rhus copallina L., usually occurs in shrub form but it occasionally reaches a height of 20 feet with a stem diameter of 6 inches. The leaves are smooth above but somewhat hairy beneath with a winged rachis and about 9 to 21 leaflets that are slightly toothed. Late in the summer its foliage turns a brilliant red. The fruit clusters are much smaller than the preceding species. It is found throughout the State.
SUGAR MAPLE Acer saccharum Marsh.
THE sugar maple is an important member of the climax forests which stretch from Maine to Minnesota and southward to Texas and Florida. It is an associate of the hemlocks and the birches in the North, with the beeches and chestnuts through the middle states, with the oaks in the West and with the tulip and the magnolias in the South. In Illinois it is a common and favorite tree throughout the State. In the open it grows fairly rapidly and has a very symmetrical, dense crown, affording heavy shade. It is, therefore, quite extensively planted as a shade tree. The bark on young trees is light gray and brown and rather smooth, but as the tree grows older, it breaks up into long, irregular plates or scales, which vary from light gray to almost black. The twigs are smooth and reddish-brown, and the winter buds are smooth and sharp-pointed. The tree attains a height of more than 100 feet and a diameter of 3 feet or more. The sap yields maple sugar and maple syrup.
SUGAR MAPLE
Leaf, one-third natural size. Twig, one-half natural size.
The leaves are 3 to 5 inches across, simple, opposite, with 3 to 5 pointed and sparsely-toothed lobes, the divisions between the lobes being rounded. The leaves are dark green on the upper surface, lighter green beneath, turning in autumn to brilliant shades of dark red, scarlet, orange and clear yellow.
The flowers are yellowish-green, on long threadlike stalks, appearing with the leaves, the two kinds in separate clusters. The fruit, which ripens in the fall, consists of a two-winged “samara”, or “key”, the two wings nearly parallel, each about 1 inch in length and containing a seed. It is easily carried by the wind.