20 Different Types of Maple Trees
More than 100 distinct species of maple trees produce more than 20 different types of maple. They are native to the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in the temperate zones from 30 degrees north to 30 degrees south. Some species grow in higher latitudes, but most do not grow naturally outside their range. In addition, some maples can be found as natural hybrids between other species, further increasing the available varieties.
Maple trees are deciduous, meaning they lose their leaves in the winter and transition back to green after summer. They have distinctive red or yellow leaves that often turn spectacular shades of orange and red before falling in autumn. All types of differences are how they branch out and produce flowers and fruits.
Here is everything you must know about the types of maple trees, including where they grow, how they look, their uses, and what makes them unique from each other!
1. The Iconic Chinese Paperbark Maple
Paperbark maple(Acer griseum) is also known as blood bark Marple. Moreover, it is the recipient of the Award of Garden of the royal horticultural society for its unseen qualities as a type of maple tree. It is a medium-sized tree growing to a height of 30-40 feet, a spread of 16-20 feet, and a trunk diameter of 28 inches.
The tree has compound leaves 2-4cm broad, dark green above and bright virescent blue-green on the underside. The bark has papery layers and is smooth and bright orange-red. The tree needs acidic, moist, well-drained soils and either full or partial light with modest water intake because it cannot survive drought. Aphids, vestibulum wilt, and horse chestnut scale all impact the tree.
People commonly cultivate trees for decorative purposes. You can plant the paperback in your backyard, flowerbeds, or on the edge of the city’s historic courtyard gardens.
2. The Sugar Maple
The sugar maple(Acer saccharum) is also known as rock maple, sugar maple, curly, hard maple, or birdseye maple. The tree requires acidic, deep, drained soils with full or partial sun. Additionally, it has a dense crown of leaves appearing in shades of gold to scarlet in fall and a smooth grayish bark and branches that furrow as they grow. Did you know that the oldest sugar maple is approximately 330 years old?
The white-tailed deer, moose, and snowshoe hare browse the sugar maples while squirrels eat the seed buds and leaves. Aside from that, in historical times, using ashes for soap, bark for dyeing, sap for tonic purposes, and syrup for problems relating to the liver and kidneys was common. In 2001 a renowned baseball player switched from a traditional ash wood baseball bat to a maple wood bat and hit 73 home runs, breaking a new world record.
3. Symbol of Strength and Endurance – The Red Maple
The red maple(Acer rubrum) is also known as swamp maple or water maple and is the most widespread native type of maple tree in North America. The maple grows at a fast rate of approximately 13-24 inches per year, achieving 40-60 feet in height and 40 feet in width. Also, the tree prefers acidic, loamy, moist, well-drained, and clay soils with full sun for the best output. The tree has a fall color of yellow to red. It has red flowers from winter to spring. Also, it has simple dark green leaves with 305 lobes.
They can also be in an oval, rounded, upright, or erect shape. However, when wilted or dead, the tree leaves are toxic to horses, damaging the red blood cells, thus causing acute oxidative hemolysis.
Native Americans used the tree’s bark to heal muscle aches and hives, as well as cataracts and surgery. People make tea from the inner bark to cure coughs and diarrhea and to make dyes and ink.
4. Iowa’s Fastest Growing – Silver Maple
The silver maple(Acer Saccharinum)is also known as soft maple, white maple, large maple, or silver leaf maple. Southeast Canada and eastern central United States are the tree’s natural habitats. It’s a tree that proliferates, reaching heights of 49 to 82 feet and spreads out to 36 to 49 feet.
The soil must be deep, moist, acidic, and have either full or partial sunlight. However, it is highly tolerant of many types of soil.
The tree produces red, yellow, and silver clusters of tiny flowers in spring. Also, it has the giant seeds of all native maples at a size of 3 inches long. The tree grows in a vase shape and has a broader root system and a massive trunk.
Squirrels eat the large rounded buds. Birds and chipmunks eat the seeds, and beavers and deer eat the bark. The trunk cavities produce shelter for squirrels, raccoons, owls, and woodpeckers.
The wood creates various products, including paper, flooring, musical instruments, and tool handles.
5. The Boxelder Maple
The boxelder maple(Acer negundo)is also known as the ash left maple, and it is an invasive species and a widespread tree in the streets west of the Mississippi river. It is native to North America. The Manitoba maple is a fast-growing type of maple tree, achieving 35-80 feet tall with a trunk.
When young, the green shoots frequently have a waxy coating that ranges from pale to pink or violet. Branches are smooth and fragile and tend to keep their vibrant green color rather than develop a protective bark of dead tissue. Its trunks have scaly, pale gray or light brown bark split into broad ridges.
The tree has many applications, more to the native Americans, such as
- Source of fiber for use in fibreboard
- Source of wood for the Navajo for making tubes for bellows and the Cheyennes to make bowls bowls
- Source of charcoal for the Dakota and Omaha people
- Making spiritual medicine for native Americans such as the Cheyenne people
6. Canada’s Largest Maple – The Bigleaf Maple
The bigleaf(Acer macrophyllum) is also known as Oregon maple. It is a native tree to western North America and in the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California and Idaho. The bigleaf reaches a height of 36 meters in the giant maple in Canada.
The tree has a small greenish flower that blooms in early spring and deep five-lobed leaves with wavy teeth and shiny dark green on top and pales on the underside. The bark is grey-brown but grooves when older. The tree seeds are eaten by squirrels, mice, and crossbeaks, while the deers and elk eat the twigs. The tree has several uses, including making hooks for clothing and pipes. Making rope, baskets, and whips for whipping scopolamine berry required the inner bark.
The ancestors consumed the shoots and made a specific kind of maple syrup. Commercial applications include furniture, musical instruments, and interior finishing.
7. Symbol of Elegance, Beauty, and Grace – The Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum is sometimes known as the smooth Japanese maple or palmate maple.
It is indigenous to China, eastern Mongolia, southeastern Russia, Japan, Korea, and Japan.
The tree has a height range of 10 to 25 feet. For optimum growth, the tree requires acidic, moist, well-drained soils and partial sun. Red or purple flowers bloom in spring. For the best benefits, the tree should be pruned frequently.
8. The Norwegian Maple
Norway maple(Acer flavonoids) is native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia. It grows to approximately 256 meters in length with a 1.5-diameter trunk. Also, it does not develop a shaggy bark like other maples. Instead, it has five palmate lobe leaves that are dark green but change to yellow or red during fall.
In addition, it has bright green flowers and winged seeds known as samaras which fall in autumn. The Norway maple trees have many uses for animals and humans, such as:
- Caterpillars eat the leaves of Norway maple trees,
- Bees and other insects gather nectar from the blossoms, and
- Birds and animals consume the tiny seeds.
- It frequently creates turnery and furniture.
9. The Sycamore Maple
The sycamore maple(Acer pseudoplatanus) is also known as the sycamore in the British Isles. It is native to western Asia, central Europe, Ukraine, northern Turkey and the Caucasus, and the mountains of Italy and Liberia. The tree grows to 40-60 feet. Preferably, it grows in medium moisture, average, and well-drained soils with full or partial sun. However, it tolerates various soils, salt, drought, and urban pollution.
Additionally, it has a rounded crown of five-lobed extended leaves with the front three lobes about the same size. The leaves turn intensely in autumn from gold yellow to red, while the two-winged nutlet samara fruits of the sycamore tree ripen in autumn.
The tree is common in parks, roadside greens, and single trees. However, they are greatly affected by black spots, maple leaf marks, maple mildew, and maple tar spots.
10. The Smooth Douglas Maple
The Douglas maple(Acer glabrum)is a small tree growing approximately 7 meters tall. The leaves are around 7cm wide with 3 to 5 lobes. They are coarsely toothed grayish green underneath and dark green on the top, turning red-orange in autumn.
The Douglas maple has clustered winged fruits with a V shape. Additionally, it has a thin, smooth, and dark reddish brown trunk. The Douglas maple prefers well-drained soils with full sun.
The ancient people used the tree for snowshoe frames, spoons, fishing hooks, rattles, headdresses, and depots. The Thompson’s inner twine, the Shuswap made rope, and the Nisgas made mats.
11. The Bigtooth Maple
The Bigtooth maple(Acer grandidentatum)is a perennial plant. It prefers moist, sandy medium loam clay or limestone-based soils with full sun. The tree reaches a height of around45 feet with a width of 15 feet. It has simple and veined leaves around 2 inches long and 3 inches wide with 3-5 lobes and rounded teeth.
Additionally, the tree has small yellow-green flowers that appear in spring and lead to the growth of double-winged innovation. It also has a smooth gray-brown bark that develops shallow furrows as it ages. The bigtooth maple provides shade in canyon bottoms for recreational areas and is food for numerous birds.
12. Sue Hamilton’s Favorite Tree – The Coral Bark Maple
The coral maple(Acer palmatum) is a slow-growing tree that grows 15-25 feet long and 10-15 feet wide. The tree requires acidic, well-drained soils with full to partial sun. The coral bark maple adapts to different soils. However, it prefers well-drained moist soils with full sun or partial shade.
13. The Black Maple
The black maple (Acer nigrum) is a tree that reaches a height of 70-110 feet. You can find it in Canada in the green region of moist floodplains. The tree prefers moist, well-drained soils with full or partial sun. However, they can tolerate dry soils and alkaline soils.
The black maple grows in an oval or upright form and has simple, three-lobed leaves and double-winged U-shaped samaras. Due to its dense foliage, the tree is expected to produce maple syrups and has a primary application as an ornamental tree.
14. The Stress-relieving Mountain Maple
The mountain maple(Acer spicatum)is also known as soft maple, eastern maple, mountain maple, or moose maple. Spicatum means “spike bearing.” The tree grows to 10-25 feet tall and forms a spreading crown with a short trunk. It has two simple leaves per node.
Additionally, the leaves are green and hairless on the top, with a network of veins that give a quilted appearance, turning yellow to red in autumn. It also has a thin, dull gray-brown, smooth bark with a reddish fruit. The mountain maple prefers moist, well-drained soils.
Native Americans used the tree to treat coughs, sore eyes, wounds, and the wood for making arrows. Additionally, it is known to relieve stress in humans. Aside from that, The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has identified the mountain maple as the preferred food for white-tailed deer following several observations.
15. The Short Hedge Maple
The hedge maple(Acer Campestre) is widespread in urban environments. The hedge maple achieves a height of approximately 25-35 feet with a spread of 25-30 feet. It requires moist, alkaline, well-drained soils with full or partial sun. However, it tolerates alkaline soils, road salt, and dry sites.
16. The Trident maple
The trident maple(Acer buergerianum) is native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan. It is a little deciduous tree that turns crimson in the fall. Consequently, it produces flowers in spring that are small with five greenish sepals and five yellow, white petals.
Additionally, it produces a samara with two winged seeds. The maple is a good choice for bonsai art, responding well to techniques that create ramifications. However, the trident maple is affected by verticillium wilt and fungal spot diseases.
17. The Striped maple
The striped maple(Acer pensylvanicum) is also known as snake bark maple, goosefoot maple, or moosewood maple. It is a North American native that can reach heights of 15 to 25 feet, with specific specimens growing to 40 feet.
The bark is striped with white and green but turns brown when it ages. The leaves are soft and broad with three shallow lobes. Additionally, it blooms in late spring. The tree prefers moist soils with partial shade but tolerates heavy shade.
18. Amur maple
The amur maple (Acer grinnala) grows to a height of 20 feet with a spread of 15 feet. It is a small deciduous tree. Also, it has simple, coarsely toothed leaves, creamy, fragrant white flowers, and smooth and gray branch bark that turns to grayish brown as it ages.
The amur maple prefers moist, well-drained soil with full sun. However, it is tolerant to a wide variety of soils and shade. You can find the Amur maple on the roadside and in ornamental landscapes.
19. The Three Flowered Maple
The three-flowered maple (Acer triflorum)is also known as the shaggy barked maple. It is native to Korea and northeastern China. The deciduous tree grows to 82 feet with a spread of 20-25 feet. On top of that, it has trifoliate leaves with serrated margins and is emerald green in spring.
The shaggy barked maple has three tiny yellow flowers in small corymbs, thus its name. Consequently, the flowers give out hairy samaras with a woody shell nutlet.
The tree prefers most well-drained soils. However, it is tolerant to drought and clay but does not tolerate over-compacted soil. As a result, it has gained the royal horticultural society award of garden merits. Do you need to see the tree in us? You can find the Himalayan maple in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts.
20. Himalayan Maple
The Himalayan maple(Acer oblongum) is also known as the Kashmir maple or evergreen maple. You can find the tree in Asia, from Tibet and northern India to Japan and southern China.
The tree prefers a humid climate of clay, moist, well-drained soils, and full sun. However, it tolerates shade. In addition, the tree has broad, oblong, toothless, and long-pointed leaves that are blue-green. The flowers are greenish white in branched, hairy terminal clusters. Also, the tree has a smooth bark that wrinkles as the tree ages.
What is The Most Common Type of Maple Tree?
There are many types of maple trees. However, the most common type is the Big leaf maple tree.
What is The Fastest Growing Maple Tree?
The red maple takes the lead in growth in terms of development. The tree grows at a fast rate of 13-24 inches per year.
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