Tree ID Question

[VerHageFamily]

Being new to this I have been spotting maple trees everywhere. However, Identifying which species is hard. I tried in the fall based on foliage but it was hard that way too. Is there a nice chart somewhere. I have googled them but they seem to be all over the map.

But here is the main reason for my question. I just started this past March in my backyard because I got the equipment too late. However, it caught the eye of the school behind me and they want to me boil syrup for the students next you at the elementary school as part of the science unit. In return they would get us permission to tap the maple trees on the school property. Before there were leave on the trees it was hard for me to tell if they had maple (have some birch that I might tree to tap too). However, today I noticed among the green leave maples that might be Norway Maples, there are red leafed maples. Are those the red maples? All the pictures I seem to find are red leaves in Autumn, not in the spring. If they are in fact maples that can be tapped I have found dozens of them since the neighborhood streets are lined with them.

[unc23win]

You can tap and collect sap to make syrup from any maple some produce more sap and some produce sap that has higher sugar content. If you were limited in tapping equipment or processing time you might pick in choose, but most people tap any maple they can.

[mudr]

Sugar, silver, red, and norways can all be tapped. Sugars generally have the best sugar content of them all, but you can find high sugar individuals and sites of the other species. Red maple leaves are still green, though the top of the leaf stem can be red. Sometimes silvers and reds can be difficult to distinguish at times, as they can actually hybridize and make individuals that are not quite either parent species. Norways are invasive but can still be tapped and produce syrup, they just aren't the best tree ecologically speaking. They are very similar to sugars, with slightly pointier leaf tips, generally larger leaves, smoother and more striated bark (in my experience), and I believe they are the ones that give the milky ooze when you snap off a leaf.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/trees-shrubs/identifying-maple-trees-for-syrup-production-minnesota-maple-series/
sugar vs norway -->https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/12/73/09/127309cb01e4fcdd65cb4311a3200eb7.jpg
red vs silver vs sugar -->http://uptreeid.com/PICShardwoods/HMAP-header2.jpg

[maple flats]

The easiest to ID I find is the winter sugar maple. The buds come to a POINT. On all maples you have opposite branching, however most end up with one broken off. Look in the finest twigs, if you see any with opposite branching and the bark look like one of the maples, it is a maple. Your best learning tool might be to get a copy of the "North American Maple Producers Manual" or the "Sugarmaker's Companion", both give good pictures to help ID the maples. Another thing about sugar maples, is that the bark changes greatly from a young tree to a mature one. When young the bark looks like a rather grainy surface, slightly like worn course sand paper, as it matures the bark gradually changes and when mature it has plates that curl away from the tree, the curled plate is vertical, never horizontal. It is like the tree out grew the bark and a layer split and one edge curled out, but under the curl there is more unsplit bark. The books will show you the pictures of the leaves on each type.
The trees you see at this time of year with red leaves are a totally different, ornamental maple and while tapping can be done, the sugar % is low. They are in the Crimson Maple family.

[jimsudz]

Red maples leaf has a redish tint to them in their early stages in late spring but end up being green when fully formed. Crimson maples are a real deep red from start to finish. they are ornamental that's why they are lining the roads,they were planted. Go to google images and look at the variety of maple leaves,and the bark. then go out and practice your id in the bush.

[sap retreiver]

The branches will tell you also. Reds like to grow straighter up and sugars tend to branch out. Never paid attention to the Norway's their bark is more easy to tell, once you now the difference the bark is easily distinguished, but the easy way is the branch and crown shape