Sugar Maple is a large, moderate to slow growing, long lived deciduous tree. It will typically grow 40 to 80 feet tall (sometimes to 100 feet) with a large dense, rounded crown and a trunk up to 3 feet in diameter. It is one of the giants of the forest providing abundant shade and beautiful fall foliage. Sugar Maple has deeply furrowed gray bark which turns almost black when wet. Its leaves are medium green, opposite, palmately lobed (3 to 6 inches wide with 3 to 5 lobes) turning brilliant yellow, orange and red in autumn. Fruit are two-winged horseshoe-shaped samaras about 1 inch long, appearing in clusters, brown when mature in the fall. Sugar Maple grows about 1 foot each year in most soils but is sensitive to reflected heat and to drought, turning the leaves brown (scorch) along their edges. Leaf scorch from dry soil is often evident in areas where the root system is restricted to a small soil area, such as a street tree planting. It is more drought tolerant in open areas where the roots can proliferate into a large soil space.
