Sugar Maple

Grown for its flaming autumn colour, Acer saccharum is a large, shapely, upright, deciduous tree, with a dense, rounded or oval crown and greyish bark. The large, rather dull-green, sycamore-like leaves have three to five lobes and turn brilliant yellow-orange and red in autumn; the leaves sometimes colour unevenly. In April, panicles of yellow-green flowers appear at the same time as the leaves; the flowers are good for bees and butterflies, and are followed by winged seeds in autumn. Sugar maple is tapped for its sweet sap (maple syrup) in the US and Canada. It is ideal as a specimen tree for a park or large garden, particularly against a dark background of trees.