Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum

Sugar maple is a large tree, often 80 feet or more tall with a trunk up to 3 feet in diameter. The largest sugar maple is in Connecticut and is 115 feet tall, with a girth of 18 feet, 7 inches. It has a large, dense and rounded crown and is one of the giants of the northeastern hardwood forest. It is a highly valued ornamental tree with very showy red-orange color in the fall.

Sugar maple is a very important timber tree and its hard wood is used for furniture, cabinets, veneer, and musical instruments. Sugar maple is the most important species used for syrup production. Sap is collected in the spring by inserting a wood or metal spile into the stem. The sap is concentrated by boiling or reverse osmosis, with about 40 gallons of sap required per gallon of syrup.

For more information on Sugar Maple, visit the links below:

Virginia Tech Department of Forestry
UConn Plant Database