The wood is hard, heavy, strong, close-grained and light brown in color. It is known, commercially as hard maple, and is used in the manufacture of flooring, furniture, shoe-lasts and a great variety of novelties.
The black maple, Acer nigrum Michx., occurs with the sugar maple with darker bark. The leaves are usually wider than long, yellow-green and downy beneath, and the base of the petioles enlarged. The two lower lobes are very small; the lobes are undulate or entire.
SILVER MAPLE Acer saccharinum L.
THE silver or river maple, also called the soft maple, occurs on moist land and along streams. It attains heights of 100 feet or more and diameters of 3 feet or over. It usually has a short trunk which divides into a number of large ascending limbs. These again subdivide, and the branches droop but turn upward at the tips. The bark on the old stems is dark gray and broken into long flakes or scales; on the young shoots it is smooth and varies in color from reddish to a yellowish-gray. The silver maple grows rapidly and has been much planted as a shade tree. Because of the brittleness of its wood, it is often damaged by summer storms and winter sleet.
SILVER MAPLE
Twig, one-half natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size.
The leaves are opposite on the stem, have from 3 to 5 lobes ending in long points with toothed edges and are separated by deep angular sinuses or openings; they are pale green on the upper surface and silvery-white underneath. The buds are rounded, red or reddish-brown, blunt-pointed; generally like those of red maple.