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How to identify — Sugar maple is most readily identified by its leaves, which are well-known as the emblem of Canada. Compared to red maple, the leaves are more 5-lobed and less toothed, with rounded rather than pointed sinus (the indentations between the lobes). Sugar maple is the most well-known fall foliage species, with leaves turning a range of bright red and orange colors. Buds are browner and more pointed than those of red maple. Bark is similar to to red maple and not particularly distinctive in younger trees; on older trees it may develop long scaly plates. Habitat/Distribution — Sugar maple is found throughout the eastern hardwood forest from the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River south to Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains, but is generally absent from the Deep South and Piedmont. It is much less tolerant of poor soils than red maple and is found primarily on moist, fertile, well-drained soils of hills and lower mountain slopes. In the White Mountains it is found up to an elevation of about 2,500’. Ecology — Along with beech and yellow birch, sugar maple is one of the defining species of the northern hardwood (or beech-birch-maple) forest. Though spruce and hemlock may be minor components of these hardwood forests, sugar maple is rarely found in stands dominated by conifers. (An exception is abandoned agricultural sites, where it may grow under stands temporarily dominated by white pine.) It is a shade-tolerant, long-lived species, and can exceed 300 years of age and 36” in diameter, making it an important component of old growth hardwood forests. It is a valuable lumber species, and almost every part of the tree is used by wildlife as food. Beavers and porcupines chew the bark. Snowshoe hare, deer and moose browse the twigs and winter buds. Buds as wells as flowers are eaten by grosbeaks, purple finches, nuthatches and grouse; and the seeds are stripped of their wings and stored as winter food by squirrels and chipmunks. And of course there is the sap that can be boiled down to make syrup or maple sugar. All maples can produce good sap in some quantity although there is variation in sugar content between species. Environmental Change Issues — Sugar maple may be seriously impacted by both climate change and acidic deposition. Because of its preference for fertile soils, the loss of calcium and other nutrients due to acidic leaching may make many soils unsuitable for this species. Decline of sugar maple in Pennsylvania has been attributed to loss of soil fertility and is a concern in many other areas. Climate and tree growth models also indicate that sugar maple may be greatly reduced as a part of eastern hardwood forests under a warmer future climate. |
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