ACERACEAE 
Sugar Maple. Hard Maple. Rock 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 
0; stamens 7-8; ovary hairy. 
FRUIT.—September-October, germinating the following 
spring; paired samaras, glabrous, with wings about 1 inch long, 
diverging slightly. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Small, acute, red-brown, glabrous or 
somewhat pubescent toward the apex, the terminal 14 inch long, 
the lateral smaller, appressed. 
BAIRK.—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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