Can you tap a black maple for syrup?

Yes, it's the best. Tap it exactly like sugar maple — same sweet sap, same long season. Its sap sugar is about 2–2.5%, essentially the same as sugar maple.

How much black maple sap makes a gallon of syrup?

About 35 to 43 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup at its usual 2–2.5% sap sugar, by the updated Rule of 86. Producers treat black and sugar maple as one tree: the sap and syrup are essentially identical in quality.

When do you tap a black maple?

Like sugar maple, black maple resumes growth late in spring, so it has one of the longest usable seasons before the sap turns “buddy.”

Acer nigrum

How to identify a black maple for tapping

Short answer

Best for syrup

Yes, it's the best. Tap it exactly like sugar maple — same sweet sap, same long season.

Sap sugar: 2–2.5%
Sap : syrup: 35–43 : 1

Mature black maple trunk with dark, deeply furrowed bark and irregular ridges — Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Black maple leaf with three main lobes and edges drooping downward, as if wilted — Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Labeled black maple specimen at the University of Kentucky Arboretum with a dense, rounded crown starting to change color — Photo: Daderot, CC0 1.0

Leaf-off ID

Identify it in winter

01Opposite branching with sharp-pointed brown buds like sugar maple's — but plumper and often fuzzy.
02Twigs carry raised, bumpy lenticels and may be gray-hairy near the tip (sugar maple's are smooth).
03Bark is darker than sugar maple's — dark gray-brown to nearly black — with ridges and deep furrows rather than curling plates.
04Likes moist river bottoms, and hybridizes freely with sugar maple, so plenty of trees look in-between.

In summer

Leaves usually 3-lobed (sometimes 5), with sides that droop like they're wilting.
Look for small leafy stipules at the base of the leaf stem and fuzzy leaf undersides — sugar maple has neither.
Colors and drops its leaves earlier in fall than sugar maple.

Easily confused with

Sugar maple →

Flat, 5-lobed leaves with no stipules, smooth twigs, and platier bark. For tapping purposes, it doesn't matter which one you have.

Norway maple →

Fat, rounded green-to-purple buds, and milky sap from a snapped leaf stem.

Sap sugar: About 2–2.5%, essentially the same as sugar maple
Season: Like sugar maple, black maple resumes growth late in spring, so it has one of the longest usable seasons before the sap turns “buddy.”
Syrup: Producers treat black and sugar maple as one tree: the sap and syrup are essentially identical in quality.
Range: New England and southern Quebec west through southern Ontario to Minnesota, south to Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

How many are out there?

about4.4 million

black maples 10 inches and up on US forest land, by the Forest Service’s count.

About 4.4 million of them in the 17 atlas states
About 780,000 are 18 inches and up, big enough for a second tap

±20% sampling error. All 50 states’ latest inventories, plots measured 2013–2025. FIA counts trees on forest land only. Yard, street and farm trees are not counted, so true numbers are higher. How FIA counts →

County counts in the maple atlas →

Tapping it?

Sources · 6

1.Black Maple (Acer nigrum) — Gabriel · USDA Forest Service — Silvics of North America (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990)
2.North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, 2nd ed. (Bulletin 856) — Ch. 3 “The Maple Resource” and Ch. 7 “Rule of 86” · Ohio State University Extension with the North American Maple Syrup Council
3.Black maple (Acer nigrum) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)
4.Distinguishing Between Norway, Sugar, and Black Maples · Purdue University Extension
5.Identifying Maple Trees (Maple Toolkit) · Ohio State University Extension — Ohio Woodland Stewards

Show 1 more

6.Forest Inventory and Analysis: live trees on forest land by species and diameter (FIADB 1.9.5, EVALIDator / FIADB-API), accessed 2026-10-07 · USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

FAQ

Black maple questions

Can you tap a black maple for syrup?: Yes, it's the best. Tap it exactly like sugar maple — same sweet sap, same long season. Its sap sugar is about 2–2.5%, essentially the same as sugar maple.
How much black maple sap makes a gallon of syrup?: About 35 to 43 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup at its usual 2–2.5% sap sugar, by the updated Rule of 86. Producers treat black and sugar maple as one tree: the sap and syrup are essentially identical in quality.
When do you tap a black maple?: Like sugar maple, black maple resumes growth late in spring, so it has one of the longest usable seasons before the sap turns “buddy.”

Tree ID