Sugar Maple

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum

    Few trees -- if any -- are as loved as the classic sugar maple. The sugar maple was the first one that I found in my search for a dozen trees on the Adirondack Coast. A towering sugar maple sits behind my apartment, overshadowing our cars. The leaves were brown and blotchy, not in the traditional fall color change, but something that lead me to fear the tree was sick -- crowded between apartments, parking lots and nearly spliced by a wooden fence, it’s perhaps not the best place for a tree to thrive. The second I discovered was a little ways off a secondary trail at Point Au Roche State Park. This one was much younger, just 15 or so feet in height, with a relatively thin base. At 15 feet, it is likely in the range of nine to 10 years of age. The leaves were already changing into bright yellows and reds.

The sugar maple tree grows to a height of 70 to 90 feet and 40 to 50 feet wide in maturity.  It has a pretty wide canopy which can make it great for casting shade on the area beneath and the trees themselves, regardless of the season, are among the prettiest to dot the northeast.

The iconic three-pointed leaves illuminate autumn skies in the northeast. The deciduous leaves grow up to seven and a half inches long and near as wide with five palmate lobes. They start off as a rich green in the spring and slowly turn to a light yellow until the end of fall they’re a dark, blackish-red. Leaves of the same tree commonly transform colors at different times and rates, making sugar maples a colorful array of different colors.

    The tree’s sap is processed into one of North America’s favorite delicacies, maple syrup. Sap from the tree has been processed by Native Americans for generations and used as barter long before colonists began making it themselves. The collection, done across the northeast and Canada, is a huge and storied industry. Metal taps and buckets fill the woods, sometimes with collection tubes in between, collecting the slowly-dripping sap. From there the sap is boiled to remove water, making about 1 liter of syrup for every 40 liters of raw sap.

    When I was a kid, my older brothers and fathers would fill our property with the buckets to collect sap. There wasn’t many sugar maples on our property and the yield was never huge -- especially compared to some of the large-scale networks of some of our neighbors and professionals -- but few things beat fresh maple syrup on a plate of homemade chocolate chip pancakes.

Humans aren’t the only ones who get its food from the sugar maple tree. Its twigs, buds, seeds and leaves are browsed on by white-tailed deer, moose, squirrels and snowshoe hare. Plenty of species of birds feast on their seeds as well or nest in their branches.

    The trees use doesn’t stop there, as its bark was used to make tea, medicine and dye and its ashes used to make soap. As timber, sugar maples are a common resource in the sports world. Sugar maples make up most of the wood in bowling alleys and pins with their wavy grains. The NBA builds their basketball courts with sugar maple and is a popular choice for baseball bats, pool cues and gunstocks.

New York, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin all have adopted sugar maple as their state tree, making them the most common state tree in the country. On the Vermont state quarter, two leafless sugar maples and a woodsmen adorne the mint. The maple leaf adornes the flag of Canada -- just proving North Americans love for the sugar maple.

*Reflection

Red Oak

Northern Red Oak

Quercus rubra

    A common sight throughout North America, the red oak is among the most iconic American trees. The red oak I sampled was found about a half mile into the trail in Point Au Roche State Park outside of Plattsburgh. I’ve been to the Point nearly a dozen times in my four years at SUNY Plattsburgh. My roommates and friends frequently went to have a fire, shoot photography or walk the dog, but this was the first time visiting that the focus was on trees. My roommate, Chris, is an ecology major and he helped me with some of the identification, but even he struggled with some of the trees we discovered. There was no difficulty identifying the iconic red oak though and both of us were able to name it with relative ease.

From first glance I would assume it had not reached maturity. By the eye test, it was around 50 feet high. Most red oaks grow to a height of 65 to 75 feet with a 40 to 50 feet spread. The tree is among the fastest growing in the region, often increasing yearly by nearly two feet. Its spread is wide and rounded and its crown often grows irregularly. Located so close to the tree, constant traffic on its root system and contact with people could hampen its growth or long term health.

Although its the state tree of New Jersey, red oaks are native to the Chicago region. The tree has since spread across the midwest into the northeast and Canada.

    Every fall, red oaks turns from a vibrant green to a colorful red. The red oak I found, late in september, was just starting its transformation to crimson. In just a few weeks, that red oak and many others will lighten up the Adirondack landscapes.

    Leaves of the red oak alternate and are around five to ten inches long with seven to nine big lobes. The tree itself is brown with a tint of red, owing to its name, with thin, scaly ridges that form its bark.

    Red oak trees play a huge role in the food chain. Its acorns turn from green to a dark brown with a saucer crown. Dropped seasonally by the red oak, its acorns fuel the diet for blue jays, wild turkeys, squirrels, rodents, bears, deer and raccoons.

    In the Adirondacks, red oaks are susceptible to wilt -- an incurable fungus that can kill the tree. In environments not as acidic as desired, they may suffer from chlorosis, which yellows the leave early when its veins remain green. Red oaks in the northeast have also suffered from insect predation and both overpopulation and saturation have made it difficult for its acorns to spread and disperse.

    Ideal soil conditions include acidic, well-drained clay deposits. Red oaks thrive when they get an abundance of sun. Saplings struggle to grow in dense woodland where they cannot reach full sunlight, making them more common in open fields than in dense woodland. Their dense and wide crowns often cast a strong shadow on the ground beneath, making them a great tree for a backyard picnic area.

    Red oaks are favorites among loggers for their size, quick growth and strong frame. They’re subject to moisture so they’re not good for shipbuilding or anything outdoor. Instead, they’re best for indoor lumber and veneer.

Easily transplantable, red oaks have been brought to Europe where they’ve managed to thrive in several locations. The first in Europe is believed to have been planted in England in the late 17th century and today it among the most invasive tree species in the continent. Red oaks now dominante many landscapes in Poland, Belgium, Ukraine and Lithuania. 

*Reflection

Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood

Cornus florida

Native to eastern North America, the flowering dogwood blooms showy white flowers during the spring. It is considered one of the most beautiful flowering trees native to the united states. A smaller tree, 15 to 30 feet on average, it has a short drunk and wide, nearly horizontal branches. Because of its beauty and short nature, it is a popular supplement for gardens.

At least 36 bird species, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, rabbits, deer and bear eat their fruit. Many also graze their twigs and foliage.

Historically, the tree has been popular throughout United States gardens and plantations. Medicinal tea was made from its bark by Native Americans and desperate civil war doctors. Its hardy wood has been used for shuttles, yokes and handles. The flowering dogwood is the state tree of Missouri and Virginia.