The Sugar Maple – Our Favorite Tree
No doubt, the Sugar Maple is our favorite tree. It is where the clear, sticky sap comes from to make maple syrup. It is the tree that is sets the mountains ablaze every fall inNewEngland and Quebec. It makes great hardwood charcoal. It is great to make cabinets out of. It’s leaf makes the Sugar Maple one of the most recognizable trees and is in fact the national symbol for Canada.
Blazing Sugar Maple Leaves
The Sugar Maple can get tall, up to 150 feet, and live up to 250 years.
There are other types of maples that are nice in their own way but there is something about the Sugar Maple, otherwise known as Acer Saccharum, that is special. Don’t confuse it with the Norway Maple an invasive species with white sap. Or the rare Black Maple, Acer Nigrum, which is nice but has funny short leaves. Or the Silver Maple which is basically a weed tree that will fall on your house within 40 years.
But the main reason I love the Sugar Maple is for its gift of maple syrup. Throughout the summer, the Sugar Maple produces sugar through photosynthesis which is stored for winter in the roots of the tree in the form of starch. At the end of winter and early spring the tree’s metabolism comes alive and this starch converts to sugar and the tree begins to draw water from the soil. Thus starting the ‘pump’ for maple sap collection. The sap we depend on for our annual maple syrup production.
Here’s to the Sugar Maple.
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This sounds Delicious!
I love the color of the sugar maple leaves especially during the autumn. It’s just brilliant. Never have I known that there really are many kinds of maple trees, one thing is common though, they all are lovely plus sugar maple gives us the much-loved maple syrup! Yum!