Black bark on sugar maples - disease?

[MapleSue]

I noticed that about five of my trees on the far northern edge of the bush have black bark. Is this a fungus or other disease? I Googled it but with little luck. I've attached a pic of one of the trees. The blob at the top is a porcupine. It looks like he's been eating the bark on this tree a lot. But you can see from the pic that the tree is much darker than the rest of the trees. The other pics are close ups of the bark. There's an injury on this particular tree from a logging operation a while back, but some of the other black trees have no injuries at all. Also, the sapsuckers have been working on this tree. If anyone knows what this is and what I should do about it (if anything), I'd really appreciate the input.
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[SPILEDRIVER]

i do believe what you have are black maples,not sure how common they are in mn but we have some here in central ny,not many but there around.they have good sugar and will cross with sugar maple

[happy thoughts]

The third pic looks too dark for black maple. It almost looks like that tree was spray painted black. I'd suspect some sort of fungal disease. Googling, I found a few references to bark diseases of maple that cause bark to turn black caused by Steganosporium canker. It primarily affects sugar, red and norway maples

http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/pubs/diseases/bark.htm


Steganosponum ovatum- This fungus is common as a decayer of maple bark killed by other agents. It is a pathogen only on trees that are predisposed by adverse conditions such as drought, defoliation, or winter injury. Affected bark often bears numerous discrete black fungal pustules on it. With time, the pustules may coalesce to form a crusty, black film on the bark.

As for what to do- first make sure what you're dealing with. Do you have a forest service rep or someone in a local conservation district that could come out and take a look?

[220 maple]

Looks like Black Maple to me from your pics. Check them next month, the Black Maple leaf is slightly different in comparsion to a Sugar Maple leaf.

Mark 220 Maple

[maple flats]

Were they black last year? If not, my guess is a fungal issue. If they were black last year and the year before but without significant change except as might be related to maturity it may not be a fungus. if in doubt, get a bark sample and submit it to your land grant college for analysis and if needed possible remedies.

[220 maple]

Black Maple distribution? On page 19 in the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual there is a distribution chart Fig. 3.8 for Black Maples. My location is not in the shaded gray area, however I have several Black Maples within the Sugar Bushes I tap. When I was at the Leader Seminar in 2010 I asked a Leader dealer from the Ohio area if they have lots of Black Maples? He said they are not in his area of Ohio and he had never seen one! When I told him about the chart in the manual he and I walked to the bookshelf and he looked at the chart himself. He was puzzled that Ohio was totally gray? Just curious if there are many Black Maples?

Mark 220 Maple

[happy thoughts]

I have a few here that I suspect are hybrids with sugars, the only difference being a slightly darker grey (not black) bark and leaves that are not quite sugar maple in appearance, somewhat droopy hanging on the tree and a little less deeply lobed. Some consider blacks and sugars to be the same species and they do hybridize with each other so maybe that's part of not being readily recognized. Also, the map you're referencing- is it one that shows the native range? If so, native range is not necessarily the same as where they are actually growing. The USDA native range map is here:

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/acer/nigrum.htm

Almost all of WV is included except for your panhandle and extreme southern tip.

[tonka]

I also have a few maple trees with black bark and I am about 4-5 hours north of the natural growing range here in MN. If I remember correctly from an artical, black maples have a fairly high sugar content (correct me if I am wrong) mixed with a sugar maple, can that result in a higher sugar content then if it was just a black maple or a sugar maple?

[happy thoughts]

Sugar and black maples are closely related. Some consider blacks a subspecies of sugars while some consider them the same species. Both are hard maples. Sugar content of each are similar. Variations in sugar content between individual trees should exist just as they do in other maple species. I'd think higher sugar content would be a matter of genetics between individual trees and not just hybridizing between the species per se.

I looked at your states black maple range the other day. It differs from the USDA map extending in patchy areas farther north.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Plants/black_maple.html

[doop]

I hag e a few trees like that too, and you can't be far from me. I don't know if they are black maple or not, but I was helping a friend tap his trees down the road and he just told me they produced more sugar. Maybe Dr. Tim will chime in if were lucky.

[MapleSue]

Well, I talked to a forester. He didn't come out an look at my particular trees, but he said that it's not uncommon for sugarbushes in this area to have a few trees with this black bark. He didn't know anything about black maples. He said he thought it was a type of mold, but that it didn't hurt the trees and not to worry about it. When they leaf out, I'll compare carefully to the other sugar maples to see if there's any difference.

Now I just have to do something about that doggone porcupine!

Thanks for all the feedback!

[heus]

I have a tree like this in the yard. My grandfather planted three sugars 40 years ago. They are one tappers now. Anyways one of them has black bark. It also has a crack about 10 feet up that seems to almost open and close throughout the year. It bleeds dirty water or something out of it then runs down the tree. The bark that gets wet is black year round. It is one of my highest sugar content trees.

[DrTimPerkins]

The other pics are close ups of the bark.]

Nasty looking wound or canker on the stem of the tree shown. A question....is the black section wet or slimy looking, or was it just wet from the rain or snow when you took those photos?

If I had to guess at this point, I would call it "Bird Peck Defect". http://tinyurl.com/bunjjub

The main clues, other than the black bark, is the fact that you mentioned both porcupines and woodpeckers. Both cause wounds to the branches or stem of the tree.....sap drips down...fungus grows on the sugar in the sap. Repeated damage keeps the fungus happy and thriving. Rodents and stem defects (cracks) can also cause the same thing.

Are these trees by chance near a wet area? Not real common, but quite interesting. Tends to happen more near wet areas where the trees are more stressed.

[MapleSue]

Thanks, Dr. Tim. I believe you've identified the problem. The bark is not wet or slimy, it's "sooty black" just like the paper describes in the link you posted. I looks almost like it's been through a fire. And yes, all the trees with black bark are on the lowest edge of the sugarbush that borders a black ash swamp. My forester had commented that he thought some maples weeped sap when they got older, which he thought might attract the porcupines and sapsuckers, then their damage caused kind of a vicious cycle. The paper about Bird Peck Defect also talked about that. From what I read, it doesn't sound like I need to worry about it spreading to the other trees. The paper only suggested removal because they were poor quality trees that couldn't be used for lumber and they were taking up space in the orchard. So I imagine that if I just leave them where they are, on the fringe of the sugarbush, maybe the sapsuckers and porkies will continue to visit those trees more and leave the healthy ones alone. Thanks for the info! It really helped!

[DrTimPerkins]

Thanks for the info! It really helped!

You are very welcome. Glad to be of assistance. It was an interesting question.....not at all the typical situation.

[heus]

Sapsuckers totally girdled and killed one of my red maples: