ACERACEAE 



Sugar Maple. Hard Maple. Eock Maple 



Acer saccharum, Marsh. [Acer saccharinum, Wang.] 



HABIT. A stately tree 60-100 feet in height, with a trunk 

 diameter of 3-4 feet; in the open forming stout, upright branches 

 near the ground, in forests making remarkably clean trunks to 

 a good height ; the crown is a broad, round-topped dome. 



LEAVES. Opposite, simple, 3-5 inches long and broad; 

 usually 5-lobed (sometimes 3-lobed), the lobes sparingly wavy- 

 toothed, the sinuses broad and rounded at the base; thin and 

 firm; opaque, dark green above, lighter and glabrous beneath, 

 turning yellow and red in autumn ; petioles long, slender. 



FLOWERS. May, with the leaves; polygamo-monoecious 

 or dioecious; on thread-like, hairy pedicels in nearly sessile 

 corymbs; greenish yellow; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed; corolla 

 o; stamens 7-8; ovary hairy. 



FRUIT. September-October, germinating the following 

 spring; paired samaras, glabrous, with wings about I inch long, 

 diverging slightly. 



WINTER-BUDS. Small, acute, red-brown, glabrous or 

 somewhat pubescent toward the apex, the terminal % m ch long, 

 the lateral smaller, appressed. 



BARK. Twigs smooth, pale brown, becoming gray and 

 smooth on the branches; old trunks dark gray, deeply furrowed, 

 often cleaving up at one edge in long, thick plates. 



WOOD. Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough, durable, 

 light brown, with thin, lighter colored sapwood. 



DISTRIBUTION. Found throughout the entire state. 



HABITAT. Prefers moist, rich soil in 'valleys and uplands 

 and moist, rocky slopes. 



NOTES. The most important hardwood in Michigan. The 

 tree which produces the bulk of the maple sugar of the market. 

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