Acer Saccharum - Cultivation and Uses

Cultivation and Uses

The sugar maple is one of the most important Canadian trees, being, with the black maple, the major source of sap for making maple syrup. Other maple species can be used as a sap source for maple syrup, but some have lower sugar contents and/or produce more cloudy syrup than these two.

The wood is one of the hardest and densest of the maples, 740 kg/m3 (46 lb/cu ft), and is prized for furniture and flooring. The sapwood can be white in color, and smaller logs may have a higher proportion of this desirable wood. Bowling alleys and bowling pins are both commonly manufactured from sugar maple. Trees with wavy woodgrain, which can occur in curly, quilted, and "birdseye maple" forms, are especially valued. Maple is also the wood used for basketball courts, including the floors used by the NBA, and it is a popular wood for baseball bats, along with white ash. It is also widely used in the manufacture of musical instruments, such as the members of the violin family (sides and back), guitars (neck), and drum shells.

Canadian maple, often referred to as "Canadian hardrock maple", is prized for pool cues, especially pool cue shafts, and the highest grades of this white wood are used by virtually all (both production line and custom hand-made) cue makers to make high-quality shafts. Some production-line cues will use lower-quality Canadian maple wood with cosmetic issues, such as "sugar marks", which are (most often) light brown discolorations visible on the shaft caused by sap in the wood. Great shaft wood has a very consistent grain, and no marks or discoloration. Sugar marks usually do not affect how the cue plays, but are not as high quality as those without it. This wood is also used in skateboard decks for its strength.

The sugar maple is a favorite street and garden tree, because it is easy to propagate and transplant, is fairly fast-growing, and has beautiful fall color. The shade and the shallow, fibrous roots may interfere with grass growing under the trees. Deep, well-drained loam is the best rooting medium, although sugar maples can grow well on sandy soil which does not become excessively dry. Light (or loose) clay soils are also well known to support sugar maple growth. Poorly drained areas are unsuitable, and the species is especially short-lived on flood-prone clay flats. Its salt tolerance is low and it is very sensitive to boron.

Cultivars

• 'Apollo' - columnar
• 'Arrowhead' - pyramidal crown
• 'Astis' ('Steeple') - heat-tolerant, good in southeastern USA, oval crown
• 'Bonfire' - fast growing
• 'Caddo' - naturally occurring southern ecotype, great drought and heat tolerance, good choice for the Great Plains region
• 'Columnare' ('Newton Sentry') - very narrow
• 'Fall Fiesta' - tough-leaved, colorful in season, above-average hardiness
• 'Goldspire' - columnar with yellow-orange fall color
• 'Green Mountain' (PNI 0285) - durable foliage resists heat and drought, oval crown, very hardy (cold tolerance may match 'Unity')
• 'Legacy' - tough, vigorous and popular
• 'Monumentale' - columnar
• 'Sweet Shadow' - lacy foliage
• 'Temple's Upright' - almost as narrow as 'Columnare'
• 'Unity' - one of hardiest cultivars, from Manitoba

The sugar maple is the state tree of the US states of New York, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.