The Very Versatile Maple Tree

Lynda Ellis, Anoka County Master Gardener

If you travel through your yard or neighborhood, and see palmate leaves, you may have a maple tree! Maple trees are great trees for Minnesota. They are hardy, there are many varieties, many sizes, and many colors. In this article I will feature three: Silver Maple, Red Maple, and Sugar Maple.

Silver maples are fast growing deciduous trees that typically reach 50 to 80 feet tall and can reach over 100 feet in ideal moist conditions, with a mature canopy spread of 40 to 70 feet. They grow quickly, adding several feet in height annually, making them great shade trees. However, Silver Maples are also known for their weak wood and invasive roots. These are the roots you usually see near the surface of the turf. The silver maple (Acer saccharum) is known for the silvery-white underside of its leaves. They like moist soil. I live on Rice Creek and have a deck overlooking the creek on the north. When we bought the house it had a silver maple, an excellent shade tree, on the eastern size of the deck. In the morning the deck has sun. Around noon the tree starts giving shade, first the eastern side of the deck, then later covering the entire deck.

The red maple (Acer rubrum) in our yard is a special tree. It is on the south side of the house where it can be seen from the street. It has spectacular fall foliage which can be viewed by the entire neighborhood. Red maples are the similar in height to silver maples, but with a canopy spread of 30 50 wide at maturity, offering fast growth and brilliant red color, though specific cultivars and growing conditions can vary their size. The leaf of the red maple is While faster growing, silver and red maples do not live as long as sugar maples. Their average life span is about 50-100 years. Red and silver maple trees have serrated edges, while the sugan maple has smooth edges.

Sugar maples (Acer saccharum) also have great fall foliage, but its main use is for production of maple syrup. If there is only one tree, one can insert a little metal tap into the bark and hang a bucket from it. For more syrup, want more trees are needed. Rather than one bucket, food-grade small tubing can be hung from one tree to the other ending in a large tub. A fire (or commercially, an electric heater) boils the sap down to syrup. Yum!.

The sugar maple normally reaches heights of 80-115 feet and the mature canopy spread is typically 40 to 50 feet but can be up to 60 feet. The crown of a sugar maple is dense and mostly oval when not crowded. The sugar maple tree is long-lived, to 300-400 years. The leaves are deciduous palmates with five lobes and are born in opposite pairs. The fall color is often spectacular, ranging from bright yellow on some trees through orange to fluorescent red orange.

Maybe you need a maple tree in your yard. Early spring is a great time to plant maples!