It is also found on drier sites in mixed stands of other trees. Red maple is common in the north central and northeastern portions of the state and is usually found in moist soils adjacent to wetlands and swamps. The wood is heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, and light-brown to reddish, with lighter sapwood. The bark on young trees is light gray to brown and rather smooth, later breaking into long irregular plates of bark that often loosen vertically along the side. The fruit, called a two-winged samara or key, differs from other maples in that it matures in the fall and germinates the next spring. The flowers are greenish and inconspicuous. They are thin, firm, opaque, dark green above, paler beneath, and turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red in autumn. The leaves are opposite, simple, three to five inches long, broad, and usually five-lobed. In forests it develops a clean trunk to a good height, whereas open-grown trees form a dense, round-topped crown. On better soils, it attains a height of sixty to 100 feet with trunk diameters in excess of three feet. Sugar maple grows in most regions of Minnesota except in the extreme western counties. Following are descriptions of the four maples used for syrup production in Minnesota: During the active growing season, maples can be identified by their leaf shape. Maples are easy to identify because of their opposite branching habitat, leaf shape, and unique fruit called samaras. While our Maples can be distinguished by the bark with it's gray furrows and long irregular vertical, the leaves are the easiest manner of identification. The Sugar Maple can be distinguished by it's 5 lobed leaf which is 3-6 inches wide.The leaves have a bright green upper surface and a pale green lower surface. Our forest also contains Basswood, Red and White Oak, Red and American elm, Bitternut Hickory and Ironwood. A little known fact is that the Box Elder (Acer Negundo) is a species of Maple that can also be tapped and used for syrup making.Īt Somerskogen, we are a part of the Southern Mesic Maple-Basswood forest which only contains the Sugar Maple. While there are 13 native species of Maple, only the Sugar Maple (ç) and the Black Maple (Acer Nigrum) are preferred due to their higher levels of sugar content in the sap. Somerskogen approaches the western most region of Maple Syrup production. These are the regions that contain the most Sugar Maples. Production of maple syrup is confined primarily to the Northeast United States and Southeastern Canada for a simple reason.
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