Best for syrup
Black maple
Acer nigrum
Tap it exactly like sugar maple — same sweet sap, same long season.
Bark
Leaf
Whole treeIdentify it in winter
- Opposite branching with sharp-pointed brown buds like sugar maple's — but plumper and often fuzzy.
- Twigs carry raised, bumpy lenticels and may be gray-hairy near the tip (sugar maple's are smooth).
- Bark is darker than sugar maple's — dark gray-brown to nearly black — with ridges and deep furrows rather than curling plates.
- Likes 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.
Other trees
Keep this season's numbers for next year
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