148 Hawthorne Street: Acer saccharum Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum

If ever a tree typifies New England, it is the sugar maple. Sugar maple is a stately native tree rising above the forest with its tall trunk and rounded oval canopy. Sugar maple is known for its brilliant autumn yellow to burnt orange leaf color and in winter, sugar maple, as the name suggests, can be tapped to produce maple syrup from its sugary sweet sap.

The sugar maple reveals its upright, oval shape and medium to deep green leaves in summer creating a shady canopy on the lawn. With autumn, the dark green leaves of summer color transition from yellow to burnt orange with shades of red in autumn. The samara fruit develops with 1-2” divergent wings that children open to use as noses.

With age, the smooth gray to brown bark develops deep vertical furrows along the trunk. In winter, the sap of the sugar maple flows, and the trees are tapped for the production of maple syrup. It takes forty gallons of sap, which is boiled down, to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Acer saccharum is native to the hardwood forests of northeastern North America. The range extends from Eastern Canada southward to include the North Central and the northern United States. The slow-growing sugar maple can live for three to four hundred years and reach heights upward of 100 feet.

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Trees of New Bedford series
A Stately Sugar Maple

by Joseph Ingoldsby, ASLA Landscape Architect

Common Name: Sugar Maple (also known as Rock Maple)

Botanical Name: Acer saccharum

The Oak Grove Sugar Maple

Distinguishing features: If ever a tree typifies New England, it is the sugar maple. Sugar maple is a stately native tree rising above the forest with its tall trunk and rounded oval canopy. Sugar maple is known for its brilliant autumn yellow to burnt orange leaf color and in winter, sugar maple, as the name suggests, can be tapped to produce maple syrup from its sugary sweet sap.

Spring features: In spring, ¼” long chartreuse-colored flowers emerge in clusters suspended by pendulous 1” to 3” long pedicles (stalks) before the tripartite terminal leaf buds open to reveal opposite, simple, three to five lobed olive-green leaves that darken to deep green as the season progresses.

Summer features: The sugar maple reveals its upright, oval shape and medium to deep green leaves in summer creating a shady canopy on the lawn.

Fall features: The dark green leaves of summer color transition from yellow to a burnt orange with shades of red in autumn. The samara fruit develop with 1-2” divergent wings that children open to use as noses.

Winter: With age, the smooth gray to brown bark develops deep vertical furrows along the trunk. In winter, the sap of the sugar maple flows and the trees are tapped for the production of maple syrup. It takes forty gallons of sap, which is boiled down, to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Crown: Younger sugar maple trees reveal their ascendant branching structure and oval shape. In maturity, the branching becomes pendulous (droopy) at the tips. The slow growing sugar maple can live for three to four hundred years and reach heights upward of 100 feet.

Use: The sugar maple is best used as a specimen planting in parks, cemeteries, or large lawn areas where it can reach full size away from roadway salt and pollution. Some of the best cultivars are Commemoration and Green Mountain.

History in the USA: Acer saccharum is native to the hardwood forests of Northeastern North America. The range extends from Eastern Canada southward to include the north Central and Northern United States. Being a New England tree, sugar maple is intolerant of extreme heat and drought. Evenly moist, mesic soils and changing seasons are required. Sugar maple is used for its brilliant autumn coloring and its sap for maple syrup production. The wood of this maple is used in furniture making; bird’s eye maple, where tiny knots are revealed in flat sawn boards, is sought for fine cabinetry work and can still be found used as finish flooring in some older buildings – including mills. Sugar maple charcoal is used to filter Jack Daniels Whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee to mellow their whiskey 1.

1. Michael Dirr, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Stipes Publishing, LLC, 1998