Sugar Maple
Acer saccharum 

by Warren Fellerman 

The sugar maple is often called the sugar tree, hard maple, and oak maple. The scientific name for the sugar maple is Acer saccharum. It belongs to the class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, and the family Aceraceae. The sugar tree is native in eastern Canada and the United States. It is a native plant throughout the state of Virginia.  The tree grows to a height of more than 100 feet and a diameter of 3 feet or more. For the tree, best growth is made in moist, rich, well drained soils, but the tree will live in poorer locations.  The bark on young trees is a light gray to brown and rather smooth. As the tree grows older the bark breaks up into long irregular plates or scales, which vary from light gray to almost black. The twigs are smooth and a reddish brown and the winter buds sharp pointed.  The leaves are 3 to 5 inches across, with five pointed and sparsely toothed lobes. The division between lobes is rounded. The leaves are a dark green the on upper surface and lighter green beneath. The leaves have 5 principal veins. The leaves are smooth above and below. The leaves in autumn are brilliant shades of dark red, scarlet, orange and clear yellow.

The flowers are in bunches on slender, hairy stalks 2-5 centimeters long. The flowers are a pale yellow, with a five-lobed bell shaped calyx, 5 mm long. The flowers are without petals.  The trees bloom during April and through June. The fruit is a paired key with two level slender wings 4 x 1 cm each. When mature they are brown. Fruit is on the tree from June till September. 

The Native Americans greatly valued the sugar tree for the many uses they had for it. The sugar tree was their main source of sugar. In addition, they used the wood of the tree to make many things. The sap of the Acer saccharum is highly valued to be processed into maple syrup. Also the tree is highly valued as a source of hardwood. The wood is used in construction and in making furniture.

Written spring 2004, as a service learning project for Dr. Gary Coté's Biology 102 class at Radford University.  Copyright Pathways for Radford.