|
Across the lane north of the beech is an old sugar maple with an atypical
concentration of heavy horizontal limbs emanating from its ashy gray trunk. Its
leaves are completely normal, and color brightly in autumn. The chief attributes
of this species are its major role as an important component of forests in much
of eastern North America, its warm orange fall color, its highly useful wood,
and its sweet sap. When the trees are leafless in late winter, their sap rises
and descends with the temperature, and people extract it to use in making syrup
or sugar, whose maple flavor is one of the unique delights of life. Our climate
is too warm in winter for commercially worthwhile sap harvest, but the trees
grow well here.
|
![[Sugar Maple tree]](/home/treetour/graphics/31sugmap.jpg)
|
Tree Tour