Identify the 5 Most Common Maple Trees

Sugar Maple

The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) is a deciduous tree that can grow more than 100 feet tall. It is the most common maple tree in the United States and is found mostly in the eastern half of the country, where it is prized for its ornamental value and tapped to produce maple syrup. The Sugar Maple’s distinctive leaf shape makes it easy to identify: lobed leaves with five points, growing between 3 and 6 inches wide.

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In fall, the leaves change from green to vibrant shades of yellow and orange before falling from the tree. Some cultivars produce yellow or purple foliage year-round.

The Sugar Maple grows best in full sun but tolerates partial shade as well. It needs moist soil; if your soil tends toward dryness, consider planting another species of maple or incorporating drought-tolerant plants around it for its benefit. They are hardy in USDA zones 3 through 8 and usually live an average life span of 300 years – making them a good choice as a legacy plant for passing down to future generations!

Red Maple

• Red maple leaves are bright red in the fall, dark green in the spring and summer, with three to five lobes.
• Red maple leaves are 2-6 inches long and 2-6 inches wide.

Black Maple

Black maple is another common maple tree that you’re likely to find in eastern North America. It prefers a moist, rich soil and is more shade-tolerant than other maples. Like red maple, black maple wood is used for furniture and cabinetry, but it isn’t as durable as sugar or red maple.

Bigleaf Maple

_Bigleaf Maple_ (Acer macrophyllum) is the largest of all maples and can be found from southern British Columbia to northern California. It’s also one of the most unique, since it can grow in warm areas that other maple trees do not favor. Bigleaf Maple has the biggest leaves of any maple, up to 18 inches wide! They look like hands with five fingers. Each finger points backward toward the main part of the leaf. The leaves are dark green on top and pale green underneath with tiny teeth on the edges.

Bigleaf Maple flowers in mid-spring, with white or green flowers that each turn into a winged seed. The seeds blow away in a breeze and eventually land somewhere else, starting a new tree growing there! Bigleaf Maple is also known as Oregon Maple and Western Bigleaf Maple.

Pacific Dogwood

The Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii), native to the western United States and Canada, is a large shrub or small tree with showy white flowers and red berries. It is also known as the mountain dogwood. The Pacific dogwood grows up to 20 feet tall and wide, has opposite, simple leaves, a round form and moderate growth rate. The flowers bloom from May through June and can be seen hanging in clusters of three to seven.

Learn about the maples that grow in your area.

While there are hundreds of varieties of maple trees throughout the world, many of which look strikingly similar to each other, there are five most commonly found in North America. Learning to identify these five species can help you recognize maple trees in your own area and whether or not they could be tapped for syrup.

Striped Maple: This variety is one of the easiest to spot because its leaves have a distinct white stripe down the center. The tree’s bark is also light grey with pale horizontal stripes that make it look like it’s covered in cork. During the fall, this maple produces fruits called “keys,” or “samaras”, with wings on one side and an elongated body that looks like a bean pod.

Red Maple: Red maples are especially easy to spot during fall due to its distinctive orange-red leaves. However, during the spring, red maples have extra-large flowers that blossom before its leaves grow back for summer. The shape and color of its leaves vary between regions; in some areas, red maples have green leaves with three lobes that point upward at the ends while other areas may produce trees with yellow-green leaves that are shaped more like a triangle than a pointy-edged arrowhead shape. Its bark is soft and light brown when it first grows but develops ridges as it ages until it becomes hard and dark greyish-brown throughout older branches. Its fruit looks similar to striped maple keys except for the fact that red maple samaras grow in pairs instead of individually like striped maple fruit does.

Bigleaf Maple: Bigleaf maples live up to their name by producing enormous heart shaped leaves that can grow as long as 10 inches across when they’re fully grown! While these trees typically produce green or yellowish green foliage during spring, bigleaf maples sometimes produce yellow foliage too depending on how much sunlight reaches their branches (trees growing under other large trees often become more yellow than