Sugar Maple">
(Aceraceae Acer saccharum)
Adopted in 1956.
The sugar maple, Aceraceae Acer
saccharum, is our main source of
maple syrup made from sap stored in its
trunk. Its leaves are pointed and turn
bright colors in the fall. The sugar
maple was adopted as the State tree in
1956.
Sugar maple sometimes called
hard maple or rock maple, is one of the
largest and more important of the
hardwoods. It grows on approximately
12.5 million hectares (31 million acres)
or 9 percent of the hardwood land and
has a net volume of about 130 million m3
(26 billion fbm) or 6 percent of the
hardwood sawtimber volume in the United
States. The greatest commercial volumes
are presently in Michigan, New York,
Maine, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (53).
In most regions, both the sawtimber and
growing stock volumes are increasing,
with increased production of saw logs,
pulpwood, and more recently, firewood.
Description:
- Leaf: Opposite, simple
and palmately veined, 3 to 6 inches
long, 5 lobed with entire margin;
green above, paler below.
- Flower: Yellow to green,
small, clustered, hanging from a
long (1 to 3 inch) stem, appearing
with the leaves.
- Fruit: Two-winged
horseshoe-shaped samaras about 1
inch long, appearing in clusters,
brown when mature in Autumn.
- Twig: Brown, slender and
shiny with lighter lenticels,
terminal buds brown and very sharp
pointed.
- Bark: Variable, but
generally grayish brown,on older
trees may be furrowed, with long,
thick irregular curling outward
ridges.
- Form: Medium to tall tree
(to 100 feet) with very dense
elliptical crown.
Taxonomic Hierarchy
|
Kingdom |
Plantae -- Plants |
Subkingdom |
Tracheobionta --
Vascular plants |
Superdivision |
Spermatophyta – Seed
plants |
Division |
Magnoliophyta –
Flowering plants |
Class |
Magnoliopsida –
Dicotyledons |
Subclass |
Rosidae – |
Order |
Sapindales – |
Family |
Aceraceae – Maple family |
Genus |
Acer L. – maple |
Species |
Acer saccharum Marsh.
– sugar maple |
Source:
Dendrology at Virginia Tech
U.S. Department of Agriculture
|