Similar to sugar maple but usually darker and more deeply grooved or furrowed. Similar to sugar maple but usually 3-lobed (sometimes five) often appears to be drooping often with a thicker leaf and lear stem (petiole) than sugar maple usually with two winglike or leaflike growths at the base of the petiole (stipules).
Horseshoe-shaped double-winged fruit with parallel or slightly divergent wings. Older trees developing furrows and ultimately long, irregular, thick vertical plates that appear to peal from the trunk in a vertical direction.Ī somewhat shiny, brownish, slender, relatively smooth twig with 1/4 - 3/8 inch long sharply pointed terminal bud.
Young trees up to 4-8 inches with smooth gray bark. Speciesģ-5 inches wide 5lobed (rarely 3-lobed) bright green upper surface and a paler green lower surface leaf margin without fine teeth (compare with red and silver maple). Identifying Characteristics of Sugar, Black, Red and Silver Maple. Southeast United States Coastal Plain & Piedmont Northeast United States & Southeast Canada Northeast United States & Southern Canada Maple species native to the United States. (Chapter 3 North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual) A fourth maple species, silver maple (Acer saccharinum), is sometimes tapped, particularly in roadside operations, and is often confused with red maple. While most of these species are probably tapped to some extent, at least by hobbyists, sugar and black maple, along with red maple (Acer rubrum), provide most of the commercial sap. There are thirteen native maple species in North America (Table 3-1).