Sugar maple (Acer saccharum): 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 saccharum Marsh., maple family
Other names	Hard maple and rock maple (Silvics); the Wood Handbook groups sugar maple and black maple as hard maple
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Mature size, Silvics	27 to 37 m (90 to 120 ft) tall and 76 to 91 cm (30 to 36 in) in diameter
Age, Silvics	Mature trees and stands reach 300 to 400 years; height growth usually ceases at 140 to 150 years
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	55 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990) says the northern limit of sugar maple runs from the southeast corner of Manitoba through central Ontario, the southern third of Quebec and all of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In the United States it records the species throughout New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the middle Atlantic states, southwest through central New Jersey into the Appalachians and south along the western edge of North Carolina to the southern border of Tennessee. The western limit runs through Missouri into a small area of Kansas, the eastern third of Iowa and the eastern two-thirds of Minnesota. The handbook adds outlying communities in northern Kansas, Georgia and the Carolinas, and says the species is restricted to cool, moist climates.

Silvics says sugar maple grows on about 12.5 million hectares (31 million acres), or 9 percent of the hardwood land in the United States, and that the greatest commercial volumes are in Michigan, New York, Maine, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Size and age

The handbook says early growth is slow because the species regenerates under heavy shade, and that growth in the pole stage is slower than most associated hardwoods. It records the largest reported sugar maple, near Kitzmiller, Maryland, at 209 cm (82.1 in) in diameter and 23.8 m (78 ft) tall, with a crown spread of 20.1 m (66 ft). It also says that after repeated cutting under uneven-aged management, ages seldom exceed 250 years.

Flowers and fruit

Silvics says sugar maple seldom flowers until at least 22 years old. The yellow flowers appear between late March and mid-May depending on location, reaching full bloom 1 to 2 weeks before the leaves emerge. Both sexes are produced in the upper crown, and only male flowers form in the lower crown. The fruit is a double samara that ripens in about 16 weeks. The large papery wings are 20 to 27 mm (0.8 to 1.1 in) long, and the handbook says they let the samara be carried at least 100 m (330 ft) by wind.

Roots

The handbook describes strong, oblique lateral roots with extensive branching, and says most fine feeder roots stay within the general area where they started. It says root grafting between trees of the species is common, and that the roots are extremely sensitive to flooding during the growing season.

Sap and syrup

Silvics calls sugar maple the principal source of maple sugar. It says sap averages 2.5 percent sugar, and that 129 liters (34 gal) of sap are needed to make 3.8 liters (1 gal) of syrup.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) says hard maple heartwood is usually light reddish brown, sometimes considerably darker, and the sapwood is commonly white with a slight reddish-brown tinge and usually 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5 in) wide. It describes the texture as fine and uniform, and the wood as heavy, strong, stiff, hard and resistant to shock, with high shrinkage. It says birdseye, curly or fiddleback grain is often selected for furniture or novelty items, and lists flooring, furniture, cabinets, cutting boards, pianos, billiard cues, handles, bowling alleys and gymnasium floors among the uses.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.56	0.63
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	9,400	15,800
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	970	1,450
Moisture content of green wood, percent (Table 4-1)	65 heartwood, 72 sapwood	Not applicable

Moisture content here is the green-wood average in the handbook's Table 4-1. The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator. For the companion species, see red maple, which the handbook places in the soft maple group.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) says that except for bud losses sugar maple is not highly susceptible to insect injury, and that diseases generally deform, discolor or decrease volume but seldom kill the tree. It names these agents, using the names of its time.

Bud and shoot. Two bud miners, Proteoteras moffatiana and Obrussa ochrefasciella, which overwinter in the terminal bud and cause repeated forking.
Leaf feeders. The gypsy moth, forest tent caterpillar, linden looper, fall cankerworm, spring cankerworm, greenstriped mapleworm, Bruce spanworm and saddled prominent, among others.
Borers. The carpenterworm, sugar maple borer and maple callus borer, and occasionally horntails.
Sucking insects and scales. The woolly alder aphid, the maple phenacoccus, the maple leaf scale and the gloomy scale.
Cankers and rots. Eutypella and Nectria cankers, which it calls probably the two most important in managed second growth, and the heart and butt rots Armillaria mellea, Hydnum septentrionale, Inonotus glomeratus and Ustulina vulgaris.
Wilts. Sapstreak (Ceratocystis coerulescens), which it says enters through root injuries from logging, and Verticillium wilt, usually found in shade trees.

The gypsy moth is the same insect as the spongy moth. The guide on spongy moth rules by country sets out what each agency says, and reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.