![]() Sugar maples can reach 80 feet or more in height, with a spread of up to 60 feet, making them a great choice for golf courses, parks, and home landscapes. Sugar maples are fast growers and can dominate a yard in under ten years. When you think of maple syrup these are the trees that make it. The sugar maple is the king of the maple family. In the fall the leaves turn to a bright yellow color before falling. These trees can be planted in any soil type so a silver maple would be a great addition to any yard. Silver maples require areas with lots of direct sunlight and plenty of room to spread out. They can grow up to 80 feet tall and 70 feet wide, providing your yard with plenty of cooling shade. Leaves are lobed with five tips and have a long stem. Silver maples have large green leaves with white undersides. Silver maples are named for the way the underside of their leaves “shimmer” in the wind. Before you go to the nursery to buy a maple tree make sure you know the differences between the many varieties. They also make great additions to your landscape. Maples aren’t just good for their maple syrup. There are several parks in the state that conduct maple sugaring demonstrations for schools and other educational purposes. Doing a neighborhood tree survey and need help identifying a tree? Contact your local Extension office for resources in tree identification.New Jersey may be at the southern end of maple sugaring country, but that doesn’t mean we are short on maple trees. It is not my aim to make readers anti-maple, but instead pro-diversity for our urban canopies. American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis.Kentucky coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioicus.Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua (Yes, sweetgum haters you read that correctly.Because for all those negatives, his good qualities still outshine the stuffed animal innards scattered across the living room floor from this morning. He chews on my kid's toys, ruined my front door, destroyed our windows, and steals my children's food, but I still love him and wouldn't trade him in…most days. It's like asking me why my dog is my favorite dog. The obvious follow-up question to my response of "Don't plant maples" is, "Well, what are your favorite trees?" Before I give you my list of trees, you need to know, this is a tricky question to ask of a horticulture educator. Go even farther and take a walk around your neighborhood and identify what tree species may be lacking and seek those out. If any of your neighbors have a maple tree, plant something else. With the loss of our ash trees, American cities have a great opportunity to plant a diversity of trees. What can we do to prevent repeating our mistakes of monoculture urban forests? Don't plant them. But things change, pests adapt, and new threats emerge. Asian long-horned beetle has popped up in the United States already, and fortunately our methods to controlling this pest have been successful. What's being planted in the wake of millions of lost ash trees? You guessed it – maples.Ĭurrently, there is a pest called the Asian long-horned beetle, that has the potential to completely wipe out North America's maple tree population. Today, our communities are grappling with the effects of emerald ash borer and the vast emptiness left in our urban canopies. One-by-one, each tree species succumbed to a non-native, invasive pest. Like the maple that follows in their trend, ash, chestnut, and elm were all heavily planted. The second connotation refers to the fact the American chestnut, elm, and soon-to-follow ash are history. The first indicates our historic use of the three aforementioned tree species in the United States. My use of the term 'historically' has two connotations. Their performance puts maple trees in the league of historically top-rated trees like American elm, green and white ash, and American chestnut. The characteristics of red maple, sugar maple or any of the various hybrids exemplify good fall color, decent growth rate, interesting bark, and ease of propagation. Speaking with landscapers about their inventory and what they sell more than any other species are maples. Drive down most streets and you will see a maple in everyone's yard. "Which maple should I plant?" is a question I routinely encounter.
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