Maple with sugar

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Description

The maple with sugar is a tree which can reach 35 m height, and exceptionally 45 meters (150 feet).

The null and void Sheet S from 8 to 15 cm length and as much broad have 3 to 5 webbed lobes finishing in fine point and persist late in the season. The lower lobes are relatively small, while the superiors larger and are deeply notched. With the difference of the angular notch of the maple silver plated, the notches of the maple sheets with sugar tend to be inside round. The colors of autumn appearing at the time of the be Indian are often spectacular, energy of the sharp yellow to orange fluorescent and the orange red. The sheets and the buds are pointed and brown.

The Fleur S are in Corymbe S from 5 to 10 flowers, yellow-green and without petals; flowering takes place at the beginning of spring after 30-55 days of growth.

The Fruit is a Disamare whose wings measure 2 to 3 cm and carry two globulous Graine S falling from the tree in autumn.

The maple with sugar is closely related to the black maple ( Acer nigrum ). It is sometimes included in this species, but sometimes separate. Acer grandidentatum is also treated like a subspecies of maple with sugar by certain botanists.

Possible confusion

The maple with sugar is often confused with the Norway maple, but they are not closely dependant in the kind. The maple with sugar is easily identifiable by its clear sap in the Pétiole (the Norway maple has a white sap). The buds of Acer saccharum are brown and those of Acer platanoides are green or red. On the old trees, the bark of saccharum is exfoliée whereas that of platanoides is finely grooved. Moreover, the lobes of the maple sheet with sugar have a triangular form, contrary to the squarer lobes of Norway maple.

Distribution

The maple with sugar is found mainly in North America and especially with the Canada. One also finds some in the North-East of the the United States or in Europe, continent where the specimens are generally of less size (25 meters, against 40 in America).

Culture

In its area of origin, the species has a rapid growth (10 m in 20 years) but, unlike Acer negundo, the tests of culture in Europe were not very profitable because its red sheets, its principal decorative attraction, do not have the same colors without the climate of North America.

The species has need for a rich, deep ground and enough expenses. It is very rustic and can be planted up to 1000 m of altitude.

The multiplication is done by Semis.

Use

Its wood clearly hard and with tight grain is appreciated in cabinet work but the principal use of this species is the production of Maple syrup.

The operation of maple with sugar

During all the good season, the maple with sugar manufactures sugars by the means of the Photosynthèse. At the end of the summer and at the beginning of autumn, these sugars are transformed into starch in the roots to spend the winter there. During the winter, water freezes and the sap almost does not circulate. In spring, the starch in the roots is transformed into sugars (primarily Saccharose or sucrose) in order to provide sufficient energy to start again the Métabolisme tree and to allow its growth. This transformation attracts the water of the ground. The daily cycles of freezing and thaw pump, in the trunk, this sweetened water called " water of érable".

Attention! the maple sap is not Sève. This one, definitely charged in Mineral and complex organic molecules, goes up by the roots only when the metabolism of the tree is started again. The arrival of the sap and its bitter taste marks the end of the maple sap harvest. Therefore, one does not collect the sap but sap maple.

In summer, the tree produces sheets which transform the crude sap into elaborate sap. This one made grow the roots of the tree which produce even more crude sap. This cycle makes it possible the tree to develop. It is for this period that the maple produces fruits, called Samare S, famous “the helicopters”, which are used for the reproduction of maple. These seeds in the shape of propeller can, thanks to the wind, to fall several meters more far from the base of the tree.

In autumn, the maple slackens the samares. Then in October, the absence of crude sap in the sheets of the tree makes them redden then to fall.

Collect and production of the Maple syrup

The trees are put in production only after approximately 40 years of growth.

It is in spring that one collects maple sap by boreholes in the trunk. The latter contains approximately 3% of Saccharose. One makes it boil to evaporate most of the water which it contains. What remainder constitutes the Maple syrup. One needs approximately 40 liters of sap for 1 liter of syrup.

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