Acer saccharum
Sugar Maple
Aceraceae

Located in front of Manchester Hall at top of 195 lawn.

  • leaves opposite, 5-lobed, medium green, changing to yellow-orange earlier than A. platanoides
  • leaves not as broad as A. platanoides
  • leaf lobes come to point, with few coarse teeth on margin
  • leaf sinuses are narrow and deep
  • buds are imbricate, conical, gray-brown and sharply pointed (contrast with smooth, fleshy round buds of A. platanoides)
  • stems brown, smooth, with small lenticels
  • stems leak a clear sap when petiole is detached
  • flowers green-yellow, before leaf emergence, in corymbs
  • fruit is a schizocarp with samaras that are nearly parallel or slightly divergent
  • fruit smaller than A. platanoides, with swollen seed
  • bark smooth and gray when young; becoming irregularly furrowed with thick ridges/plates when mature
  • habit is a medium to large tree with upright-rounded shape
  • plant is often a symmetrical pyramid when young, becoming more open and spreading with age

    View Acer saccharum page in the UConn Plant Database

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