New England Trees (Massachusetts)
Maple Tree
(Aceraceae)
The maple tree is commonly found in the Northeast region of North America. It
is also found in Southeastern Canada, China, Japan, in mountainous areas, and
the tropics. It is a deciduous tree having leaves that are palm-shaped pointed
leaves that usually grow in three lobes. The leaves are green in the spring
and summer and turn red and yellow before they drop off in the fall. In
addition, the maple tree bares a wing type seed that spins like a helicopter propeller
as it falls from the tree. The fruit, called a samara, is in the paired-winged nutlet.
The samaras ripen in late spring or in the fall.
The maple tree can reach a height of 150 feet and can grow to a thickness of
nearly 5 feet. It has a life expectancy of about one hundred years. Maple
trees thrive in a soil that is acidic and slightly sandy. It prefers a climate
that is temperate, but some species can grow in the tropics where weather is
hot and rainy.
The maple has a very hard wood which makes it good for making furniture and
lumber. It has a sugary sap which gives us maple syrup. Other things which
are made from maples are: saddles, shoe lasts, wooden kitchenware, boxes,
crates and parts of musical instruments. Hard maple is used as a fuel, veneer,
railroad ties and pulpwood. The pioneers used its ashes to make soap.
Some things can cause damage to the maple such as insects which bore into the
bark or eat the leaves. Maples are damaged by tent caterpillars,
sugar maple borers, plant lice, scales, and galls.
(The sixteen students who researched this information are fourth graders
at Hanscom Middle School on the Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, MA.
There are 280 students in the school in grades 4-8.)
If you would like to contact the kids at Hanscom Middle School, please send
your email to: Lynne McGrath <