Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is the most common street maple in Moscow. Its large broad leaves have tapering lobes and are the same shade of green on both sides; its pair of winged seeds are nearly straight. Its neat black bark has vertical furrows. Photo by Sarah Walker.

by Sarah Walker, from the November 2006 Newsletter

I trace my love of sugar to a tree: as a kid I attended a summer camp in Vermont where “good” campers (who cleaned their plates, made their beds neatly, or excelled in swimming or target practice) were rewarded with an outing by car to the Vermont Country Store, which was just a small roadside shop in the 1950s. We were allowed to pick out a piece of penny candy from the rows of square glass containers, and it was a race for the maple sugar jar with its thick creamy golden chunks molded into leaves, shells, hearts or little soldiers.

I still love maple sugar but work to resist it, now. This fall I took walks to look for big maple trees in the older parts of town and campus where Moscow’s earliest residents planted Silver, Sugar and Norway maples many years ago. I got serious about maples – why not supplant one obsession for another? – and brought along my Golden Nature Guide to Trees to learn one maple tree from another by their different leaves, seeds or bark.

The most common maple in Moscow and on campus is the Norway maple. Eleven pairs of Norway maples line the Hello Walk to the Administration Building. Of our many kinds of street trees, Norway maple is the most well-represented, City Forester Roger Blanchard told me. It’s a hardy urban tree and a prolific seeder, sometimes considered invasive. The seeds can hang on the trees until early winter.

Maple seeds are called samaras and they come in joined pairs whose shape reminds nature-writer Rebecca Rupp of “sagging airplane propellers.” Most Maple tree samaras are U- or V-shaped, but Norway’s are nearly straight.

People find maple seedlings annoying. My friend Laura declares herself death on little maples that pop up uninvited in her flower gardens. But Thoreau liked maples and thought the little seedlings were sort of cute. In 1862 he wrote about a maple that “ … has long since ripened its seeds and committed them to the winds, and has the satisfaction of knowing, perhaps, that a thousand little well-behaved maples are already settled in life somewhere.”

There are many cultivars of Norway maples, some with dark purple leaves.

Our second most common maple is the Sycamore maple. It has shaggy gray bark and its samaras are V-shaped.

The biggest trees I saw on my maple ramblings are the fast-growing Silver maples. But their brittle branches have a reputation for breaking under heavy winds or snow. Roger Blanchard says Silver maples, which become very large trees, can be too big for our city lots, so may not be good candidates for planting. Silver maple leaves are green on top and silvery below. Their seeds mature early in spring and fall off in summer.

Red maples are common in towns too. Their leaves are smaller, pale below, and “dazzling” in fall, as noted in Moscow’s free Tree Selection Guide. In spring, Red maples’ clusters of bright red flowers appear really early  — before Forsythia, even. Paul Warnick, manager of the UI Arboretum, thinks Red maples are overlooked as a flowering tree.

As for Sugar maples, there aren’t many big ones here. I found a nice patch on Polk Street and there are some on campus by the Law Building. I was encouraged to see some recently planted Sugar maples, ablaze with orange, yellow, pink and red.

It’s hard to tell a Sugar maple from a Norway maple. Their leaves can be alike. Compare the bottom sides. Norway’s are the same color, Sugar’s are paler. Sugar maple bark is grayer and shaggier. Sugar maple samaras are small and horseshoe-shaped, so if the tree you’re trying to identify is big enough to have babies, you can check for that.

The reason I felt encouraged about new plantings of Sugar maples is not because I’m dreaming of a neighborhood supply of street-sugar; it’s because it means people are planting for the future. Sugar maples take a long time to become large and gorgeous trees. Roger encourages us to plant more of them; they’re good street trees and add diversity. A city street lined with big, old trees has a lovely and peaceful look about it. Residents of new subdivisions can leave behind such a landscape by planting and waiting. Delayed gratification …

There, I’ve spent an hour not thinking about my sweet tooth. Take a walk! Get outside and enjoy the maples!

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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