My driveway maples

[DieselnHooters]

True but red maple sugar content is substantially lower thus requiring longer boiling time meaning the syrup will be darker and fetch a lower grade and a lower price. Red maples wont yield as much sap by a hefty margin and will bud earlier which shortens the sugar season.

Big time commercial operations never tap red maple and will even weed them out of their sugar bush.

 

[dave1949]

True but red maple sugar content is substantially lower thus requiring longer boiling time meaning the syrup will be darker and fetch a lower grade and a lower price. Red maples wont yield as much sap by a hefty margin and will bud earlier which shortens the sugar season.

Big time commercial operations never tap red maple and will even weed them out of their sugar bush.

Yep, nobody really likes red over sugar maples except the leaf peepers. They are prolific in mixed woodlots around here, my red maples outnumber the sugars by a good margin and probably gaining.

I mentioned it only because red can be mixed in with sugar sap to stretch a home syrup project.

 

[bigballer]

looks good, they do grow fast. here in WA they grow like weeds and i have removed many of mine around my barn. we have big leaf maples and man the leaves were a pain to clean up every fall.

 

[Jstpssng]

3rd pic of your OP definitely is a red maple judging from the leaves shape, its the only one I can see well enough. Since you picked them out from the surrounding land maybe you have both red and sugar maples.

You will be able to easily tell them apart next fall, red maple leaves will turn bright red while sugar will range from yellow to orange, red maple will also bud earlier in the sping and will gain height faster.

The last picture is a sugar maple... the leaves look like those on your national Flag. As you can se in the third pic, red maple leaves are more serrated.
If yu look at the buds you can see that the SM is compact and pointed; while the red maple is more clublike.

 

[tcreeley]

Red maple rarely gets to 8" around here before it turns into firewood. The sugar maples are here and there- left over from a 100 years ago, or in protected family woods. We are surrounded by spruce with cedar and a few pine. Red maples, birch and poplar are on the fringes. But left to itself, it turns to spruce. I like red maples for the variety. They handle the clay well. I have some spots where the clay is 3 feet thick, solid and bluish gray.

 

[dave1949]

What I think is swamp maple, or maybe some call it white maple, is a truly worthless tree. It turns to rotted nothing by the time it is seasoned.

 

[NS Gearhead]

If I remember I'll take more close up pics tomorrow! I've got 21 on the go.

 

[tcreeley]

I see another name for white or swamp maple is silver maple. That has always been a decorative tree. I didn't realize that in places it grew wild, but it makes sense.

Differences Between Hard Maple and Soft Maple | The Wood Database
silver:................red:..............:sugar/hard:
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[Jstpssng]

I see another name for white or swamp maple is silver maple. That has always been a decorative tree. I didn't realize that in places it grew wild, but it makes sense.

Differences Between Hard Maple and Soft Maple | The Wood Database
silver:................red:..............:sugar/hard:
View attachment 381228View attachment 381229View attachment 381230

Silver maple likes river floodplains, and can get pretty good sized. I suspect this is what Dave was referring to when he said that it doesn't make very good firewood.

 

[dave1949]

Silver maple likes river floodplains, and can get pretty good sized. I suspect this is what Dave was referring to when he said that it doesn't make very good firewood.

Well, I'm going to have to look closely but the leaves look more like a red maple and not as deeply lobed as a silver maple. Whatever, it tends to grow in damp areas, maybe that has more to do with the firewood than the maple variety.

Do maples hybridize very much in the (mostly) wild?

Acer saccharinum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (white/silver maple)

The silver maple is closely related to the red maple (Acer rubrum), and can hybridise with it. The hybrid variation is known as the Freeman maple (Acer x freemanii). The Freeman maple is a popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens, combining the fast growth of silver maple with the less brittle wood and less invasive roots of the red maple.

 

[Jstpssng]

If you own timberland, you have soft maple- er, red maple- er, pi$$ maple-

All right, you have acer rubrum. It's probably the most common maple in the state, and grows well on the finest sites as well as poor quality cedar ground.


There is also striped maple, aka moose maple with the big leaves; and mountain maple which isn't limited to mountains. Both of these are early successional and don't get very big.

Norway maple is an immigrant; a lot of these have been planted since post WW II because they grow fast and are great shade trees. The leaves are similar to a sugar maple except they're bigger; the twigs are clublike, similar to a red maple.

I call them an invasive species because their offspring is everywhere. They really aren't though.

 

[dave1949]

I haven't seen any Norway maple here, I'll whack if I do though.

I have striped maple, it's common along my trails.

 

[DieselnHooters]

If you own timberland, you have soft maple- er, red maple- er, pi$$ maple-

All right, you have acer rubrum. It's probably the most common maple in the state, and grows well on the finest sites as well as poor quality cedar ground.

I will add those finest sites are likely where red maples need to be whacked/harvested 1st to make room for more valuable, apex species trees and here in lower Québec and I suspect in much of lower elev. NE and NY , 1st and foremost of those is sugar maple.

 

[NS Gearhead]

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That's just what I needed! I'll have a look and report back.

 

[tcreeley]

Red maple is one of the few hardwoods in among our trees. We have gray birch and poplar (quaking aspen variety, sawtooth poplar, and balsam poplar). The aspen variety is the common one with its connecting roots in groves (all one tree). Once in a while you'll find an oak.

 

[Jstpssng]

Red maple is one of the few hardwoods in among our trees. We have gray birch and poplar (quaking aspen variety, sawtooth poplar, and balsam poplar). The aspen variety is the common one with its connecting roots in groves (all one tree). Once in a while you'll find an oak.

Old fields perhaps? All of the above (except oak) are typical of the first trees to reclaim an opening.

 

[tcreeley]

Old fields perhaps? All of the above (except oak) are typical of the first trees to reclaim an opening.

You are right about old fields, but along with that, the area has been harvested for pulpwood and firewood for ages. 8-12" is a big tree - cut long before it gets there- just leaves the softwoods.