Tree ID help

[Ryan August]

Hey, i have marked out some new trees to tap. Still fairly new to this. Doubling this year from 40+ to 80-90 taps. I am some what confident in my selection of maples vs non maples but would like some re assurance. If anyone is in the wintrop area and has a half hour or hour to spare to confirm my selection I would appreciate it.
Thanks
RYan

[maple flats]

I won't be able to be there, but some training may help. With leaves on, just get a tree ID book and study the pictures and look at the bark of various age classes. With leaves off, first look for opposite branching (must look in the fine branches, all start with 2 branches opposite each other but the majority get broken off, If the bark looks right and the branching is opposite you have a maple). Then look for the buds at the tips of the branches, a sugar maple has a sharp point on the bud tip, while Reds and silvers have wide almost flat buds. While these aren't the only maples, they are the most commonly tapped ones.

[happy thoughts]

If no one volunteers, it is pretty easy to distinguish maples this time of year when leaves are still on the tree. All maples have opposite (not alternate) branching.

7999

Opposite branching means you will see leaf pairs and branches that are directly opposite each other. Because branch buds, branches and leaves may have been lost over time you may need to look closely but if you see an opposite arrangement anywhere on the tree then consider it found. There are only a few other tree species with the same arrangement- ash, dogwood and horse chestnut. Of these, ash will be the most likely to confuse you. Ash has compound leaves meaning many opposite leaves on the same stem. Like this:

8000

Only one maple species native to the sugar producing areas of the US and Canada has compound leaves, that being box elder. Although all native species of maple can be tapped and box elder can make good syrup, I wouldn't worry about mistakenly excluding these if you have other more preferred maples like sugars and reds.

hope that helps :)

[bowhunter]

Don't try to make it too complicated. If you can pick out maples in general you're most of the way there. This time of year use the shape of the leaf as the primary characteristic. A sugar maple leaf has smoother leaf edges than red or silver maples. Reds' and Silvers' leaves have serrated edges which are very easy to identify. Red maple leaves also have a reddish stem. If a maple has seeds on it in the early autumn, it's a sugar maple. You can also tell the sugar maple by the configuration of the seeds. The two seeds are always joined at the nose with the wings on the other end and the two seeds and wings form a "U" shape. The red and silver maple seeds are joined at the nose but appear on the tree in the spring and are joined in a "V" shape.

[red maples]

yeah the maples are pretty easy to spot especially this time of year. one this is sycamore trees they have a maple shaped leaf. but you can definitely tell it s sycamore by the bark which will be a patchy white and brown to grey bark very easy to spot.

You could also have Norway Maples but you can tap those. sort of a corduroy looking bark and huge sugarmaple looking leaves and usually 100's of 1000's of seeds on them. bottom line is if the leaves look like a maple chances are they probably are.

[Ryan August]

Thanks
I knew I would get a response even this time a year. The info was helpful and helped to confirm my selections. On my second and third inspections of my trees with your knowledge provided here I have not picked out one non maple. SO I think I am on the right track.

[Revi]

Unless you live in a town area you probably are only tapping red and sugar maples. Norways will work as well, but silvers have a lower sugar content and are found only in swamps.