Black maple (Acer nigrum): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Acer nigrum Michx. f. in USDA PLANTS, maple family
Other names	Black sugar maple, hard maple and rock maple (Silvics)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and the lower 48 states
Size, Silvics	Mature trees reach heights of 21 to 34 m (70 to 110 ft) and more than 100 cm (40 in) in diameter; in central Iowa the average height of maple trees ranged from 14 to 23 m (43 to 75 ft)
Age, Silvics	Grows rapidly in early life, then slowly, and may live 200 years
Shade, Silvics	Classed as very tolerant of shade; seedlings prosper under heavy forest cover and trees respond to release even after extreme and prolonged suppression
Roots, Silvics	The handbook says no information is available
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	55 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range and relation to sugar maple

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 2, 1990) says black maple is closely related to sugar maple in habit, range, and quality and use of wood. It extends from New England, New York and southern Quebec west through southern Ontario to central Michigan, northern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota; south to northeastern Kansas and Missouri; and east in Tennessee to western North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The handbook says it was found in Delaware but is extinct there.

It also says black maple increases in frequency from east to west and is the only form in the sugar maple complex found in central and western Iowa, continuing some 193 km (120 mi) beyond the western limits of sugar maple in the warmer, drier prairie climate. In the cooler, moister eastern section the handbook says sugar maple is better adapted and introgression into black maple occurs, and that there appear to be two broad populations: a western one that keeps its identity and shows little tendency to cross with sugar maple, and an eastern one that hybridizes readily. It most commonly grows on moist soils of river bottoms in mixed hardwood forests, though on a variety of soils.

Flowers

Silvics says the yellowish-green flowers are borne on pendulous, hairy stalks 3 to 7 cm (1.2 to 2.8 in) long. Like sugar maple, black maple is monoecious, with flowers that may look perfect but work as unisexual, in mixed buds. After budburst the flowers develop in 3 to 4 days, and pollination is by wind and bees. Over the whole range the handbook gives April as the average month for blooming, with the first week in May the average in Vermont.

Growth and syrup

The handbook gives the average height and diameter after nine growing seasons in a plantation as 4.9 m (16.1 ft) and 6.4 cm (2.5 in). It says black maples are tapped for sap to make maple syrup and that tests on unreplicated plots found little difference between black and sugar maple in the sugar content of sap. Young trees are often browsed by deer, buds and seeds are eaten by birds, and the tree is occasionally used as an ornamental.

Wood

Silvics says black maple is cut and sold with sugar maple as hard maple lumber, and that the wood properties of the two overlap in a narrow range and are for all practical purposes considered the same. The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) groups sugar maple and black maple as hard maple, a heavy, strong, stiff, hard wood resistant to shock with high shrinkage, used principally for lumber and veneer, with much of it made into flooring, furniture, cabinets, cutting boards and handles. The group is described on the sugar maple page. Table 5-3b has a separate black maple row, shown below.

Wood Handbook Table 5-3b	Specific gravity	Modulus of rupture (lbf per square inch)	Side hardness (lbf)
Green	0.52	7,900	840
At 12% moisture content	0.57	13,300	1,180

The Wood Handbook states that specific gravity is based on oven-dry weight and the volume when green or at 12% moisture content. The green weight of the wood without bark is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Diseases, insects and damage the handbook names

Silvics (1990) treats black maple as attacked by the same damaging agents as sugar maple, and gives no separate list. They are set out on the sugar maple page. The handbook also says black maples in maple-basswood communities in central Iowa were adversely affected when subjected to a severe drought.

The guide on reporting a pest in the United States and the Canada reporting page give the offices that take sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.