Latin Name: Acer Saccharum (Sugar Maple) may also include Acer Nigrum (Black Maple)

Grows to a height of 70-100 feet.
Average log diameter is 24-36 inches.

Grows in the northeastern U.S. from Minnesota to Nova Scotia and south to North Carolina.

Color: Creamy white sapwood is most desirable; heartwood is a light reddish brown.
Properties: very hard, above average density, heavy weight, non rot resistant.
Uses: Maple is one of the premier native furniture woods. Excellent for turning, the wood takes a fine polish. It is also used for flooring, boxes and crates, and veneer.

Maple is one of the most important tree species in the U.S. The tree is highly ornamental, particularly in the fall months when it's leaves change to colors of vivid red, yellow, and orange. The superior working characteristics make maple an exceptional furniture wood. Maple's light color is highly desirable, particularly to the Japanese, who imported vast quantities of the wood in the last decade. Hard Maple may exhibit special grain patterns that are also much sought after, including birdseye maple with dots suggesting the eyes of birds, curly maple with a tight wavy pattern in the annual rings, and blister figure which resembles a three dimensional landscape. The boiled and concentrated sap is the commercial source for maple sugar and syrup, a use colonists learned from the Native Americans. Each tree yields between 5 and 60 gallons of sap per year; about 32 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup or 4 1/2 pounds of sugar. Native Americans used to collect the sap in buckets made from folded birch bark, stitched with basswood fibers and sealed with pine resin. Sap was then poured into large, hollowed out tree trunks, where evaporation took place by adding an endless supply of red hot stones. Better to just pay the $30 at your local farm stand...

Loran Smith