Sugar Maple – Acer saccharum

• Sugar Maple. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].

Nomenclature:

• Acer saccharum
• Family: Aceraceae

Botany and Ecology:

• Tree height: 75’-100’
• Tree diameter: 2’-4’
• Leaves are broad, flat, simple, and palmately lobed
• Fruit has paired wings that are 60 to 90 degrees apart and about 1” long
• Grows well in fertile, moist, and well-drained soils
• Distribution
• United States: AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN , KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV
• Canada: NB, NF, NS, ON, PE, QC

Uses:

• Economic:
• Used for flooring, furniture, veneer, and musical instruments as well as many other uses
• Edible:
• Sap contains sugar that can be consumed as a drink or concentrated into a syrup and used as a sweetener
• Seeds can be cooked and consumed

• Medicinal:
• Tea from inner bark can be used to treat coughs and diarrhea

• Sap can be used to treat sore eyes

Conservation:

• Conservation status: Apparently secure – This association is well distributed in the northeastern U.S. in its large-patch setting
• http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?searchCommunityUid=ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.684448. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].

Markets and Vendors:

• White Oak Nursery. [n.d.]. Acer saccharum. http://www.whiteoaknursery.biz/seedling_05.html. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• Cold Stream Farm. [n.d.]. Acer saccharum. http://www.coldstreamfarm.net/store.asp. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• Forest Farm. [n.d.]. Acer saccharum. http://www.forestfarm.com/search/closeup.asp?PlantID=acgr060. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• Laurel Creek Trees. [n.d.]. Acer saccharum. http://www.laurelcreektrees.com/pre_order.html. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• Sooner Plant Farm. [n.d.]. Acer saccharum. http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/73/index.htm. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].

Sugar Maple

• Ohio Public Library Information Network. 2001. http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact pages/maple_sugar/maple_sugar.html. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?searchCommunityUid=ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.684448. [Date Accessed :July 18, 2008].
• Plants for a Future. 2002. http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Acer+saccharum&CAN=LATIND. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• HORT. http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/a/aceacc/aceacc1.html. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].
• North Carolina State. 2003. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/acer_saccharum.html. [Date Accessed: July 18, 2008].