Sugar Maple

Sugar Maple

Highfield Park Tree Trail: Number 33

Latin/Botanical Name: Acer saccharum

Range: native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern USA

Height: 25m to 35m

Uses: Production of maple syrup, and timber for such diverse uses as bowling pins, basketball court flooring, violins and archery bows.

Description: Deciduous tree with greyish-brown fissured bark. Leaves have five palmate lobes, flowers are yellow-green, without petals and produce pairs of winged seeds. Often confused with the Norway maple, it is most easily identified by clear sap in the leaf stalk and brown, sharp-tipped buds.

Interesting fact: Although the official maple leaf on the Canadian flag most closely resembles a sugar maple leaf, it was specially designed to be as identifiable as possible on a flag waving in the wind rather than being anatomically accurate