Fall Tree Colors - Sugar Maple - Acer Saccharum

Acer saccharum

Family - Aceracerceae - Maples

The Sugar Maple is one of the more colorful autumn trees. It is also one of the more common trees found in the eastern deciduous tree forests. Its leaves can turn one of two colors, golden yellow or a glowing orange-red. The five lobed simple leaves are broadest at the base, each of the lobes tapering to a point. The bark will be a smooth, grayish white on young trees, and slightly to deeply furrowed on older ones.

Acer saccharin is generally a tree of lower elevations, but will not usually be found in swampy ground. It will prefer well drained, rich woodland soil. It will usually be found growing in the same areas with American Beech, Black Cherry, Red and White Oak, and Shagbark Hickory. Sugar Maple will usually be the predominant tree in most of the forests it inhabits.

Sugar Maple is probably best known for its sweet sap which can be converted into syrup, sugar, candy and other confections. This is a skill the American Indians taught the colonists and has turned into a major forest industry, supplying syrup for pancakes worldwide.

Sugar Maple is also a valuable hardwood for furniture making, its hard lumber suitable for furniture, veneer, cabinets and musical instruments. It is also a valuable wildlife tree, its seeds eaten by many wild animals and birds.

Acer saccharin, the Sugar Maple, is one of the basic components of the rich palette of colors which paint the forests of the eastern United States each year. Its yellow or reddish leaves glow in the autumn sunlight.. Its lumber is a valuable forest resource and various products manufactured from its sweet sap enrich our lives. Its seeds provide a rich source of nutrition for much of the wildlife inhabiting the woodlands.

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