Twig/Tree ID with Pictures

[WestMINewbie]

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Everything is still going well prepping for my first year of sugaring. However one thing that has been driving me nuts are identifying maples that I know are not Sugars. I marked well over 100 trees during the fall with the leaves on. The attached twigs are from what I think are red maples. Any feedback would be awesome. Sorry I do not have pictures of bark. I was so frustrated I drove to the farm just now and it is dark out.

[DrTimPerkins]

The attached twigs are from what I think are red maples.

All twigs in the photos appear to be red maple (the third is almost certainly red maple).

[sugarsand]

Identifying various trees can be confusing, every time you think you have a understanding of all the tree descriptions something new will come along. We have
maples that have bark that looks exactly like a cherry tree but have leaves much like a soft maple. We also have a bunch of Beech trees that must have decided to grow maple leaves, been tapping around those trees for fifty years and never noticed the leaves but they have 3/16 tubing hanging on them now.:lol:

Sugarsand

[Drew Pond Maple]

Could buds on trees from different geographic locations have different shapes?
Last two pics look a lot like my red maples here in NH
The first pic looks to pointy to be a red

[DrTimPerkins]

Could buds on trees from different geographic locations have different shapes?
Last two pics look a lot like my red maples here in NH, The first pic looks to pointy to be a red

There can be quite a lot of variation in appearance of buds. The main difference between the photos is that the last one has a lot of flower buds.

[WestMINewbie]

Thank you for the replies. It is funny I will be driving down the road trying to figure out what kind of maple the tree is!! I spoke about it in a previous post that it seems every tree on our property looks different bud wise and even bark wise. The bark in number one looks like a hard maple which threw me off.

Does anyone have a link or picture of silver maple twigs? I everyone says the sugar content is much lower and I would like to avoid those my first year.

[Loch Muller]

They all look like reds to me too, the first one being the most suspicious. I was taught to feel the end of the buds with my thumb in the winter, the sugars will be the sharpest compared to reds which crush easier under pressure. Thats not a dead guarantee but it seems to hold true. I'd say learning the difference between them by the bark is your best bet. It can take a while to learn, but I've found it to be the fastest and most reliable way to tell them even in the summer since leaves can be 20 to 30 feet in the air its hard to separate one tree from another up there. If you know someone who is good at it try and get them out in the woods with you, its always easier to explain when you have an example right in front of you.