Index    Handbook of the Trees of New England by Lorin Low Dame, Henry Brooks

Acer Saccharum, Marsh. Rock Maple. Sugar Maple. Hard Maple. Sugar Tree.

Acer saccharinum, Wang. Acer barbatum, Michx.

Habitat and Range.—Rich woods and cool, rocky slopes.

New England,—abundant, distributed throughout the woods, often forming in the northern portions extensive upland forests; attaining great size in the mountainous portions of New Hampshire and Vermont, and in the Connecticut river valley; less frequent toward the seacoast.

Habit.—A noble tree, 50-90 feet in height; trunk 2-5 feet in diameter, stout, erect, throwing out its primary branches at acute angles; secondary branches straight, slender, nearly horizontal or declining at the base, leaving the stem higher up at sharper and sharper angles, repeatedly subdividing, forming a dense and rather stiff spray of nearly uniform length; head symmetrical, varying greatly in shape; in young trees often narrowly cylindrical, becoming pyramidal or broadly egg-shaped with age; clothed with dense masses of foliage, purple-tinged in spring, light green in summer, and gorgeous beyond all other trees of the forest, with the possible exception of the red maple, in its autumnal oranges, yellows, and reds.

Bark.—Bark of trunk and principal branches gray, very smooth, close and firm in young trees, in old trees becoming deeply furrowed, often cleaving up at one edge in long, thick, irregular plates; season's shoots at length of a shining reddish-brown, smooth, numerously pale-dotted, turning gray the third year.

Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds sharp-pointed, reddish-brown, minutely pubescent, terminal ¼ inch long, lateral ⅛ inch, appressed, the inner scales lengthening with the growth of the shoot. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, with a somewhat greater breadth, purplish and more or less pubescent when opening, at maturity dark green above, paler, with or without pubescence beneath, changing to brilliant reds and yellows in autumn; lobes sometimes 3, usually 5, acuminate, sparingly sinuate-toothed, with shallow, rounded sinuses; base subcordate, truncate, or wedge-shaped; veins and veinlets conspicuous beneath; leafstalks long, slender.

Inflorescence.—April 1-15. Appearing with the leaves in nearly sessile clusters, from terminal and lateral buds; flowers greenish-yellow, pendent on long thread-like, hairy stems; sterile and fertile on the same or on different trees, usually in separate, but not infrequently in the same cluster; the 5-lobed calyx cylindrical or bell-shaped, hairy; petals none; stamens 6-8, in sterile flowers much longer than the calyx, in fertile scarcely exserted; ovary smooth, abortive in sterile flowers, in fertile surmounted by a single style with two divergent, thread-like, stigmatic lobes.

Fruit.—Keys usually an inch or more in length, glabrous, wings broad, mostly divergent, falling late in autumn.

Horticultural Value.—Hardy throughout New England. Its long life, noble proportions, beautiful foliage, dense shade, moderately rapid growth, usual freedom from disease or insect disfigurement, and adaptability to almost any soil not saturated with water make it a favorite in cultivation; readily obtainable in nurseries, transplants easily, recovers its vigor quickly, and has a nearly uniform habit of growth.

Note.—Not liable to be taken for any other native maple, but sometimes confounded with the cultivated Norway maple, Acer platanoides, from which it is easily distinguished by the milky juice which exudes from the broken petiole of the latter.

The leaves of the Norway maple are thinner, bright green and glabrous beneath, and its keys diverge in a straight line.

Plate LXXIII.—Acer saccharum.