365 Urban Species. #292: Sugar Maple

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto. The maple foliage in a playground in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, seems to be bursting into flame.

Urban species #292: Sugar maple Acer saccharum

Sugar maples are the glory of the northeastern deciduous forest. With autumnal colors of vivid orange, blood red, and flames of yellow they glow amidst the ochre ashes and birches, and deep greens of the pines. Unfortunately, they do not survive the rigors of city life very well. Traffic compresses the soil around their roots, depriving them of water, soot clogs the pores of their leaves, and opportunistic wood decay fungi move in to claim weakened limbs. Most of the sugar maples in walking distance from my house are showing visible signs of decline. But their popularity shows no signs of flagging, and they continue to be chosen for city parks and streets, beginning to die almost as soon as they are dropped into their root holes. Sugar maples are sensitive to heat, as well, and cities are warmer year-round than the surrounding countryside. The man-made increase in temperature may drive the range of sugar maples north, out of the United States. The sugar maple's leaf on the flag of Canada will gain new meaning.

Ironically, there are more sugar maples in North America today than there were before European colonization. When Europeans learned that these beautiful trees could be induced to bleed sweet syrup in wintertime (actually, its sap must be evaporated to about one fortieth of its original volume to become syrup), they planted thousands in the forests of New England. The majority of sugar maples alive today are the offspring of trees planted by humans. In parts of the city where the sugar maple has enough soil for its roots, they provide shade in summer, a welcome burst of color in autumn, and austere beauty in winter.



A young sugar maple photographed in September, in Olmsted Park, beginning to change.



This sugar maple was marked for removal from our street in April. It had been colonized by Stereum and Irpex.

(some suburban sugar maples can be seen here)

Comments

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Hey! There's a happy cloud face in the sky above the maple in the first picture!

[butsu.livejournal.com]

it looks more like some black gran with big lips :)

I'm a maple, too!

[butsu.livejournal.com]

oh, this one is one my my favourites. it's just so outstandigly beautiful and elegant.

[naturtraene.livejournal.com]

Maples are wonderful trees. It really looks like the leaves are on fire. Fascinating! Thanks for these wonderful pictures!

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, sugar maples are terrific, although the more blah Norway maple gets planted a lot now because it thrives in the city better.
One of my favorite jobs in my youth was to work for an old farmer and drive his pickup along country roads in the spring and collect the sap from all the pails. Schlepping through waist-deep snow with heavy pails, when I helped out another farm family in my father's church was less fun,
but still memorable.

The old farmers called the rock maple.

Dwight