sugar maple

a North American maple tree, Acer saccharum, that is grown as a source of sugar, which is extracted from the sap, and for its hard wood

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sugar maple

[′shu̇g·ər ′mā·pəl]

(botany)

Acer saccharum. A commercially important species of maple tree recognized by its gray furrowed bark, sharp-pointed scaly winter buds, and symmetrical oval outline of the crown.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Sugar Maple

(Acer saccharum), a tree of the family Acera-ceae that reaches a height of 40 m. The leaves are three- to five-lobed. The sap, which is obtained by tapping, is a source of sugar. The silver maple (A. saccharinum) is also a source of sugar. Both species are native to North America and are cultivated as ornamentals.

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References in periodicals archive

In the present study, we revisited a sugar maple population studied earlier in connection with a 1984 masting event (Taylor and Aarssen, 1989).

Recruitment success for mast year cohorts of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) over three decades of heavy deer browsing

Like sugar maples, both walnut and sycamore trees rely on nighttime temperatures below freezing and daytime temperatures above freezing for sap to flow.

Make syrup from birch, walnut, and sycamore trees

Syrup can be made from the sap of different trees, but sugar maples are the perfect choice.

Tasting a tree

Earthworms have started to change plant composition in sugar maple forests, according to the researchers.

Earthworms could threaten plant diversity: Study

Earlier, I counted 80 distinct spider webs on the lower six feet of a sugar maple wolf tree.

Wolf trees I: elders of the eastern forest

Large and small operators are found throughout the northern forests of the Northeast, wherever the sugar maple thrives.

From the editor

Data included stumpage prices for sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.), white ash (Fraxinus americana L.), red oak (mostly northern red oak [Quercus rubra L.]), eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), spruce-fir (mostly red spruce [Picea rubens Sarg.] with some balsam fir [Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.] and small amounts of black spruce [P.

Vermont stumpage price trends revisited: with comparisons to New Hampshire

Sugar maples have a relatively high average sugar content in their sap.

More than maples: all about sugar trees: making syrup from sugar trees is easy, inexpensive and delicious, but it also links us with the 'sweets' of our early American ancestors

Sugar maples grow throughout the northeast, the Great Lakes area, and the southern Appalachians.

Tapping into the sweetest resource: getting more than just syrup from sugar maples

Researchers say that by the end of this century the southern reaches of sugar maple habitat, like Pennsylvania, may no longer be able to sustain production.

Lost in the supermarket: from vital necessities like rice to indulgences such as wine, many foods will have a harder time making it to market as climate change becomes more intense

The only trees that can produce maple syrup are maple trees, primarily the sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.), which is native to the northeast region of North America (85 percent comes from Canada.) The bark is tapped in late winter to early spring, when the temperature is freezing at night and warm during the day, in order to collect a watery, colorless sap at the rate of about one liter per tree per season.

Maple syrup's sweet phenolic profile

Once the students have learned characteristics useful for identification, they are given two leaf samples, a sugar maple and an "unknown." They are asked to choose characteristics and collect quantitative data in order to determine whether the unknown is a sugar maple.

Engaging students in natural variation in the introductory biology laboratory via a statistics-based inquiry approach