SAPINDACEAE - - Soapberry Family

Acer saccharum Marshall — Sugar Maple

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) is a medium-sized to large forest tree, with a short trunk; large, dense oblong to rounded crown; in the forest, developing a clear bole for 50 ft. or more of its length and crowned with a small shallow, rounded head. The National Champion is 112 ft. high and has a circumference of 19.42 ft. The leaves are opposite, simple, deciduous, circular, palmately 5- or rarely 3-lobed, 3 to 5 in. in diameter; apex, long-acuminate; base, heart-shaped or truncate; margin of lobes , entire or irregularly toothed at wide intervals; rich green above, pale and glabrous below; petioles, slender, glabrous, 1 1/2 to 3 in. long.

Separating Characteristics

As stated before, separating the four species of "sugar maples" is a difficult task especially considering there are intermediates out there to confuse the mix. I guess the simple and standard answer is to say that the leaves of A. saccharum are, as a whole, larger than A. floridanum and A. leucoderme, prominently and palmately 5-lobed, where A. nigrum generally is 3-lobed. Also, Sugar Maple lobes are more long acuminate and leaves are relatively flat, i.e. corners of leaves do not droop as in A. leucoderme and A. nigrum. The undersides of the leaves are usually glabrous (but not glaucous like A. floridanum), except sometimes hairy on the main veins, while both A. leucoderme and A. nigrum are hairy underneath on the surface.

Habitat

Sugar Maple is most common on moist, rich soils of slopes and ridges; also on poorer soils and common on those of limestone origin; usually associated in the North with Beech, Yellow Birch, Red Spruce, White Pine, and Hemlock; in the South, with Oaks, Hickories, Tuliptree, and Ashes.

Native Range

According to the old range maps like the one presented below, the range of Sugar Maple extends from Canada, south to extreme northern Georgia, west to extreme northeast Oklahoma, northward to Minnesota, with a few disjunct populations in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. But, according to more recent sources such as Kartesz's BONAP Program, The National Plants Database, and Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern States, the range extends further south in Georgia and even to south Alabama, westward to western Oklahoma, and North Dakota. I'm not sure if this is a legitimate range extension, escapes from cultivation, or confusion with the other three species of "sugar maples."

The native range of Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

The Georgia range of Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple)

Zomlefer, W.B., J.R. Carter, & D.E. Giannasi. 2014 (and ongoing). The Atlas of Georgia Plants. University of Georgia Herbarium (Athens, Georgia) and Valdosta State University Herbarium (Valdosta, Georgia). Available at: http://www.georgiaherbaria.org/.