Aceraceae - Maple Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 5
Acer saccharum
. thank you
The Sugar Maple tree bark has such interesting dark colors, ridges and valleys. A friend of mine, Jay, who is the garden manager at the Asheville Botanical Gardens, told me about the dark color that is due to a fungus that eats the sugars. He said he arrived at the botanical gardens in Asheville early one morning in March and the bark looked wet. He touched the tree and it was so sweet. The sugars were out. He, being from the maple syrup kingdom of New England, loved the maple tree sweetness. I hope I am there one day when the Maple Sap in running down the tree to taste it.
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Becky
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 5
Acer saccharum
Spring
The Sugar Maple's smooth twigs are a reddish-brown to a light brown. The spring flowers are yellowish-green, on long stalks, and appear with the leaves in April. Male and female flower clusters appear on the same tree.
The bark is gray brown, smooth on young trunks, older trunks are fissured with long, and irregular flakes. The Sugar Maple bark is darker, sometimes black, and not as smooth as the red maple. The Sugar Maple sap is sweeter than the Red Maple.
Early spring is the season for tapping the Sugar Maples. This is the time that the sweet sap flows. Maple syrup and maple candy is made from the Sugar Maple sap. The Maple Trees must be 40 years old before that produce enough sap to be tapped. There is a tapping procedure to ensure the health of the Maple Trees is not compromised.
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| Sugar Maple - http://www.robert-priddy-photography.com/ |
The Sugar Maple's smooth twigs are a reddish-brown to a light brown. The spring flowers are yellowish-green, on long stalks, and appear with the leaves in April. Male and female flower clusters appear on the same tree.
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Sugar Maple - Acer saccharum
This Sugar Maple lives in the mountains of North Carolina. The flowers were blowing in the wind as I took this photograph. |
Early spring is the season for tapping the Sugar Maples. This is the time that the sweet sap flows. Maple syrup and maple candy is made from the Sugar Maple sap. The Maple Trees must be 40 years old before that produce enough sap to be tapped. There is a tapping procedure to ensure the health of the Maple Trees is not compromised.
Summer
"You only need to sit still long enough
in some attractive spot in the woods
that all it's inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns."
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
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| The Sugar Maple in the springtime at Sunset |
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| The Sugar Maple Tree |
Sugar Maple trees grow in areas up to 5000 feet in elevation. This tree thrives in New England. These trees grow in areas that have cool and moist climates.
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| The Sugar Maple with Summer Samaras |
The fruit is a two-winged key. The two wings are nearly parallel, about 1 inch in length.
Fall
Fall
Winter
This Acer saccharum lives at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville. This tree is also known as the Sugar Maple. The Sugar maple gets a characteristic black color on the bark as it matures; that is one way that you can identify the Sugar maple tree is the black looking sections on the bark. The growth of a fungus complex causes the black coloration on the bark of the sugar maple trees. Notice the sapsucker holes in the bark in this photo that my daughter took. I imagine the yellow bellied sapsuckers enjoying the sweet sap as they peck into the bark.
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| Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum This Sugar Maple Tree lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. www.ashevillebotanicalgardens.org |
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| Yellow bellied sapsucker. photo by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sphyrapicus_varius.jpg |
I encourage you to go into nature and enjoy the peace that surrounds you.
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| The Sugar Maple Tree |
The Sugar Maple tree bark has such interesting dark colors, ridges and valleys. A friend of mine, Jay, who is the garden manager at the Asheville Botanical Gardens, told me about the dark color that is due to a fungus that eats the sugars. He said he arrived at the botanical gardens in Asheville early one morning in March and the bark looked wet. He touched the tree and it was so sweet. The sugars were out. He, being from the maple syrup kingdom of New England, loved the maple tree sweetness. I hope I am there one day when the Maple Sap in running down the tree to taste it.
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| Acer saccharum, Sugar Maple in January I always notice the bark in the winter. Most of the Sugar Maples I know have a dark black bark when they get older. |
The Champion Sugar Maple Trees
The American Forest champion Sugar Maple lives in New London, Conneticut
The North Carolina champion Sugar Maple lives in Boone, North Carolina. It is 99 feet high and has a circumference of 170 inches.
My favorite Sugar Maple Tree
My favorite Sugar Maple lives at the Asheville Botanical Gardens. It is quite large and right near the front walk. I love to watch the changes in her buds and twigs and leaves and bark that I notice each time I go there.
Plant a Sugar Maple Tree
For the love of the trees,
Birds, red squirrels, gray squirrels, and flying squirrels feed on the seeds, buds, twigs, and leaves of the sugar maple.
Cavity nesters such as the black-capped chickadee excavate nest cavities or utilize preexisting cavities. The common flicker, pileated woodpecker, and screech owl also nest in maples.
This info is courtesy of the US Forest Service.
Becky
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| Acer saccharum The buds of the Sugar Maple are pointed with overlapping scales. The twigs are shiny, brownish gray and slender. The twigs and buds are opposite each other on the branches |
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