Tree to 30 m tall, trunk to 1.8 m in diameter
Leaves: opposite, stalked, bright green above, lighter green beneath, 7.5 to 20 cm long and wide, usually five-lobed, few-toothed, undersides covered with a whitish waxy coating (glaucous) and slightly hairy. Leaves turn yellow to scarlet red in the fall.
Flowers: either male or female, found on the same (monoecious) or different (dioecious) plants, borne in few-flowered clusters, greenish yellow.
Fruit: winged (samara), paired, 3 - 3.5 cm long, with wings spread to a 60-degree angle.
Bark: dark gray to grayish brown, smooth when young, becoming deeply furrowed.
Twigs: smooth, changing from green to orangish or reddish brown to gray.
Terminal buds: reddish brown, 5 - 8 mm long, conical, pointed, with slightly hairy scales.
Similar species: Acer saccharum var. schneckii has long, shaggy hairs on the lower leaf surface and leaf stalk, and the margin curls under.
Flowering: April to mid May
Habitat and ecology: Undisturbed woods, well-drained uplands, and lowland but not swampy areas.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Notes: Maple syrup is made from the sap of A. saccharum in very early spring. To make one liter of syrup, 30.25 liters of sap are needed. The wood is very hard and durable, making it a desirable material for furniture, cabinets, tool handles, musical instruments, and flooring. This is the state tree of Wisconsin.
Etymology: Acer is derived from a Latin word meaning sharp, which refers to the hardness of the wood. Saccharum is the botanical name for the genus sugarcane, which comes from the Greek word saccharon, meaning "a sweet juice."
Author: The Morton Arboretum
A frequent to common tree in all parts of the state. It is absent in the "flats" and on the crests of the ridges in the unglaciated area. It is usually associated with beech or in some of our northern woods the beech is replaced by basswood, red oak, and white ash. The species is very variable in leaf outline and in the pubescence of the petiole and the lower surface of the leaves. Several forms based upon these characters have been named. The sugar maple in Indiana has the lower surface of the leaves glaucous while in the northern range of its distribution it has the lower surface of the leaves green. To distinguish the two forms, Sargent (Bot. Gaz. 67: 233. 1919) named the glaucous form var. glaucum. [Referring to var. rugelii:] This is a form with 3-lobed leaves that is infrequent throughout our area.
Tree with smooth, pale gray, beech-like bark, becoming shallowly furrowed and scaly-ridged only on large trunks; lvs rarely over 10 cm wide, finely pubescent and pale or glaucous beneath, 5-lobed, with or without a few low teeth, both teeth and lobes obtuse or rounded; cal densely hirsute within; ovary and young fr pubescent; otherwise much like no. 2 [Acer saccharum Marshall]. Forests, especially on the piedmont and coastal plain; se. Va. to n. Fla., e. Tex., Ark., and e. Okla. (A. floridanum)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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