Common Name(s): Sugar Maple, Rock Maple, Hard Maple, White Maple.
Scientific Name: Acer saccharum Marshall
Family: Maple Family (Aceraceae)
Species Description
Growth form: Sugar maple is a medium sized tree, typically 80-115 feet fall, with deciduous leaves and yellow-green panicle flowers.
Leaves, twigs, and bark: Leaves of the sugar maple are simple, opposite, and have five lobes. They are typically up to 8 inches wide. The leaves include palmately pinnate venation. The sugar maple is best identified by its clear sap in the leaf petiole, as compared to the Norway maple which has white sap. In fall, the sugar maple is known for its fall foliage with colors ranging from yellow, orange, and red. The twigs are green and will turn dark brown once maturation occurs. The bark is dark gray and smooth on younger trees and has long plates that peel when it is older.
Leaves of Sugar Maple showing opposite leaf arrangement (Baxter, 2019)
Palmately veined and lobed leaf of Sugar Maple (Kausen, 2019)
Flowers: Sugar maple flowers bloom anytime from April to June in Virginia. The flowers are yellow-green without petals and grow in panicles of five to ten. The flowers are in drooping clusters. Male flowers are in drooping umbels up to 3-4 inches long. Female flowers are also in drooping umbels but are shorter and are generally 1-2 inches long. The flowers are wind pollinated. Sugar maple is monoecious and has a female (pistils) and male (stamen) flowers on the same plant.
Flowers of Sugar Maple (Pratt, 2019)
Fruits: The fruits are pairs of samaras (winged seeds) which grow in clusters and ripen in September by the female parts of the tree. The seed itself can be 7-10mm in diameter. The winged fruit is knocked off the tree by the wind and circulates like a helicopter wing to the ground.
Fruit of the Sugar Maple as seen with "helicopter" wings known as samaras (Baskauf, 2019)
Native range and habitat: Sugar maple is native to base-rich soils at lower elevations but excels in acidic, infertile soils at higher elevations, Sugar maple is common in the mountains including rich cove and slope forests, rich floodplain forests, dry-mesic to dry calcaerous forests and woodlands, and northern hardwood forests, Its natural range extends from eastern Canada, Nova Scotia west through Quebec and southern Ontario, and the northern parts of the Central and Eastern United States. In Virginia, sugar maple occurs as a native tree primarily in the middle to the Western part of the state as shown below.
Distribution of Sugar Maple across Virginia counties (VA Botanical Associates, 2019)
Plant Family: The aceraceae family is most known for its opposite leaves and paired winged seeds. They are palmately loved with simple or pinnately compound leaves. The ash tree of the olive family has somewhat similar seeds but the angle of the wings are smaller and closer together.
Ecologic Importance and Uses:
Edible and Medicinal Uses: The sugar maple is most popular for being a major source of sap for making maple syrup. The sap is extracted from the tree using a tap placed into a hole drilled through the phloem, just within the bark. A whopping forty gallons of maple syrup is required to be boiled to produce only one gallon of syrup. Tea can be made from the inner bark of the sugar maple and can be used as a blood tonic, diuretic, and expectorant. It can be used to treat cough and diarrhea. The bark has been taken and infused into drops used to treat the blind. The sap can be used to treat sore eyes. Maple syrup is used in cough syrup and can be a liver tonic and cleanser to the kidney.
Wildlife: White-tailed deer, moose, snowshoe hare, flying squirrels, lepidopertan larvae, and aphids all feed on the sugar maple seeds, buds, twigs, and leaves. The bark is also consumed by porcupines. The sugar maple is home to songbirds and woodpeckers who nest in it.
Gardens and Landscaping: The sugar maple's wood have been valued and used as timber because of its hardness and resistance to shock. Its wood was used for rolling pins, scoops, apple grinders, and cheese presses in the early days. Today, the wood is used for general building, flooring, furniture, cabinetry, and woodenware. The wood itself is good for home heating.
Campus Specimens - Fringe Trees
State and national champions? The largest sugar maple tree in the country is located in New London, Connecticut. This national champion has a trunk circumference of 219 inches, height of 123 feet, and crown spread of 86 feet. Resulting in a total of 364 points. The Virginia state champion sugar maple tree is located in Giles County, VA, and has a circumference of 270 inches, height of 72 feet, and crown spread of 84 feet, for a total of 363 points.
At Radford University, 36 sugar maple trees can be found on campus (true red colored pinpoints below). The most known sugar maple trees on campus surround the famous water fountain which is known as the heart of campus.
Radford University Campus Tree Map Showing Red Color Coded Points for Aceraceae Family Trees
Tree #755
Trunk circumference: 65.0 inches
Tree height: 47.0 feet
Crown spread: 62.0 feet x 59.0 feet Average = 60.5 feet
Total points: 127.1
Notes: This sugar maple scored the highest total points out of the five trees we measured on Radford University's Campus.
Sugar Maple #755 with myself standing next to it for reference (Photos taken by Tim Martin on 12/6/2019)
Tree #756
Trunk circumference: 63.0 inches
Tree height: 44.0 feet
Crown spread: 74.0 feet x 54.0 feet Average crown spread = 64.0 feet
Total points: 123.0
Tree #754
Trunk circumference: 62.0 inches
Tree height: 42.0 feet
Crown spread: 37.0 feet x 30.0 feet Average crown spread = 33.5 feet
Total points: 112.4
Tree #752
Trunk circumference: 64.0 inches
Tree height: 37.0 feet
Crown spread: 47.0 feet x 45.0 feet Average = 46.0 feet
Total points: 112.5
Tree #751
Trunk circumference: 61.0 inches
Tree height: 35.0 feet
Crown spread: 38.0 feet x 36.0 feet Average = 37.0 feet