How to Identify a Maple Syrup Tree
Nothing is more appetizing than a stack of pancakes covered with sweet maple syrup. Trees in the northern United States and southeastern Canada are responsible for the maple products that you enjoy. The sugar maple and black maple varieties are the favorites of all maple species for syrup production. Except for a few slight variations, both maple trees are identical. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Inspect the height and width of the tree. Both maple syrup trees grow to 100 feet tall and approximately 3 feet wide.
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Look at the bark. The smooth, young sugar maple bark is light gray to brown. As the tree ages, it breaks into long vertical plates. The bark of the black maple is darker and usually grooved.
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Examine the shape of the tree. Both sugar and black maples grown in an open area form a thick, rounded top. In a forest enclosure, the trunks are straight and have no branches for about two-thirds of their height.
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Study the twigs. The reddish-brown sugar maple twigs are hairless and glossy. The pointed buds lie opposite each other along the twig. The black maple twigs older than two years have a waxlike coating.
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Look at the shape and size of the leaf. A sugar maple has rounded notches between the lobes of the leaf. The broad leaves grow from 3 to 5 inches long and generally have five lobes or fingers. The black maple's leaves are wider and drooping and often have three lobes.
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Examine the leaf's color. Thin, firm, opaque leaves are dark green on the top and paler on the underside. In the autumn, they turn bright yellow, orange and red.
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Look at the fruit. The two-winged seed is approximately 1 inch long and falls from the tree in a whirling motion.
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Match tree characteristics to a picture. You can search the web for photographs of sugar and black maple trees. "Tree Encyclopedia" is a good resource. A book such as "Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification" displays pictures of trees and their characteristics to use as a comparison.
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Tips & Warnings
For maximum growth and sap production, a maple syrup tree prefers deep, moist and well-drained soil.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Andy Sotiriou/Photodisc/Getty Images
