Identifying Trees in the Winter

Quote:

Originally Posted by maple flats

First look for opposite branching. All of the limbs start as half of van opposite set, however most of them, one gets broken off, so to check you need to use binoculars and look at the upper limbs or the outer sections on any limb to verify if it has opposite branching. Then to know if it is a sugar maple or black maple you need to see a bud that can be seen but not yet opened, a sugar maple and black maples have buds that come to a point, reds and silvers have buds that have a flat top. The bark on a sugar maple starts when young almost like it has a pebble finish, as it matures the bark starts to have plates that peal away vertically. Also, on a sugar maple limbs coming off the trunk have a fairly large swell at the base of the limb, likely more than many other trees.
Once You've identified them for a couple of years you will be able to identify them from a distance in the winter.
Red maples have a fairly rough bark, almost similar to a black cherry but not as pronounced. One thing that can help also is to know what type of ground they like to live in, sugars do not like their toes in water, reds and silvers can grow in wetter areas, often on a little rise like a small island in areas that are seasonally wet but not under water most of the year.

The opposite branching turned out to be very helpful for me. I'm able to walk around my backwoods and easily ID with this method. Added bonus was a having the binoculars in hand with a Bald Eagle perched on a nearby limb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Greer

Chances are you won't get any sap from other species.

No, you will get sap from numerous other species walnut, birch and many soft maples. In Europe where they dont have maples they often tap birch. Problem is all of the other trees typically have <1% sugar so you're boiling 80l of sap to get a little of very dark, strong tasting syrup!

True, and all of those will make sweet sap.Butternut is actually quite nice in with the Maple. You won't get any sap out of an Oak, Ash, or Basswood though....I've accidentally tapped them all.