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Maples — Part 3

The sugar maple is one of the most characteristic and valuable trees in the eastern forests of America. It leads all the other maples--it is the reliable, conservative member of the family, slower than many of them, and less brilliant, but with staying qualities--an absolutely dependable tree. Soft maples come and go. These come and stay--standing always "proud and tall under their leafy crowns." They are hardy, clean and vigorous. They turn gradually to gold and reds in the fall, and drop their burden of foliage without haste.

Hard maple lumber outranks all other species, and as fuel it is surpassed only by hickory. Its ashes yield potash and alkali in large percentages. Fresh unleached hard maple ashes are highly esteemed as fertiliser for orchards and vegetable gardens.

Wise men were they who set hard maples along the boundary lines of their farms in earlier days. They now have avenues to be proud of. And they have also a source of revenue, for these low-branched, isolated trees give abundant flow of sap in the early spring.

The Black Maple, or Black Sugar Maple (Acer nigrum, Michx.), is now counted a distinct species, but was long regarded as a variety of Acer Saccharum. The best year-round character to look for is the orange colour of the stout branchlets. The tree's head is less compact and has a duller, darker green foliage mass than that of the hard maple. The leaves vary much in size and shape, but in general have three pointed lobes with broad, shallow sinuses and scantly toothed or unbroken margins; the basal sinus is often closed by the overlapping of its sides. The leaf is usually green on both sides, and smooth, with hairy tufts along the principal veins below, and on the petioles. The drooping of the leaves is very noticeable, as if the stout petioles were too weak to support their burden. The samaras differ from those of the previous species in having more widely divergent wings.

The black maple predominates over A. Saccharum in the Western prairie states. It is the sugar maple of South Dakota and Iowa. In the East, it is a rare tree. It ranges from Montreal to Ontario and to the Dakotas, and from New Hampshire and Vermont south to lower Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and eastern Kansas. It is an admirable shade and sugar tree, and its wood has the characteristics of the rock maple.

The Florida Maple (Acer Floridanum, Pax.) is smaller than our Northern hard maple, and differs from it in its small 3-lobed leaves, with blunt or faintly 3-lobed apexes, and pale, hairy linings. The fruits are also small. This tree varies considerably, and grows along streams and swamps, throughout the Gulf States.

The Large-toothed Maple (Acer grandidentata, Nutt.) resembles the last species, but its leaves are leathery and have very wide sinuses and very short petioles. It is found on the mountains from Montana to Mexico.

The two species named above are considered by some authors to be varieties of the Eastern rock maple.