Scientific name: Acer saccharum
Family: Sapindaceae (Soapberry family)
This popular shade and ornamental tree is located throughout Ohio and is known for exceptional red, yellow, or orange fall colors. Valued for its hard, dense wood, and for its sap which can be boiled and concentrated into syrup. This native tree can survive in full shade and prefers soil that is moderately deep, moist, and well-drained. Sugar maples do not thrive in urban conditions. Twigs are commonly browsed by deer and seeds are consumed by squirrels.
Identification
LEAF: Opposite leaves with long petioles, 3-5 inches across, rounded at the base with five lobes. Each lobe is sparsely incised or toothed.
TWIGS AND BUDS: Buds are sharply pointed with tightly overlapping dark brown-blackish scales. Twigs are light brown to gray, with opposite branching.
FRUIT OR SEED: Paired, almost parallel-winged seeds, or samaras, that ripen in autumn and twirl like propellers when they fall.
BARK: Thick light gray to brown and broken by vertical furrows into plate-like scales, but highly variable in color and appearance with increasing age. Salmon-pink color under bark plates and in fissures.
SHAPE: Upright oval shape.
MATURE HEIGHT: 70-100 feet.
Photo credits: Arieh Tal (https://botphoto.info), Steven Baskauf. Copyright © 2024 CC-BY-NC-SA,
Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum 