Description

Leaves: Opposite; simple; 3" to 5" wide and long; deciduous; palmately 5-lobed; lobe margins entire or sometimes wavy serrate, with rounded tips; bright yellow green and glabrous above and below; turning bright red to orange to yellow in the fall; petiole about 2" long, typically shorter than the leaf blade.

Twigs/buds: Twigs slender; glabrous; red-brown; shiny.  Terminal bud 1/4" to 3/8" long, pointed, 4-8 pairs of scales.

Flowers/fruit: Flowers dioecious (some are perfect); yellow-green and fairly inconspicuous; appearing in spring as leaves expand.  Fruit a samara; U-shaped, double-winged; matures in fall.

Bark: Gray; deeply furrowed on older trees; with long, irregular plates or ridges; sometimes scaly.

Wood: Important in the eastern U.S.; sapwood white with a red tinge; heartwood light brown; growth rings fairly distinct; diffuse-porous; uses as in silver maple but sugar maple is generally higher quality.

General: Native to most of the northeastern U.S. (east from Iowa and north from Tennessee).  Commercially the most important of the maples from a forest products standpoint.  Noted for maple syrup made from its sap.  Shade tolerant.

Landscape Use: This large tree has a nice canopy form and excellent fall color.  It can do well in Utah, but hasn't been planted much in recent years.  Some large specimens can be found in Logan and elsewhere.  Avoid extremely hot, dry sites and very high soil pH.  Zones 4-8.

Cultivars: Adirondak®, Appollo™, 'Arrowhead', 'Bonfire', 'Caddo', 'Cary', 'Commemoration', 'Endowment', Fairview™, Fall Fiesta™, 'Globosum', 'Goldspire', 'Greencolumn', Green Mountain®, Johnnycake™, 'Lanco Columnar', 'Legacy', 'Majesty', 'Millane's Dwarf', 'Moraine', 'Morton', Mountain Park™, 'Newton Sentry', 'Seneca Chief', 'Skybound', 'Slavin's Upright', Steeple™, 'Summer Proof', 'Sweet Shadow', 'Temple's Upright', 'Wright Brothers'.

Characteristics