Sugar Maple

Acer Saccharum

To your right is a sugar maple. The sugar maple is the state tree of New York, and one of the most common trees in the state. It grows abundantly here on the estate. In fact, the tree growing along the ground in front of the Visitor Center is a sugar maple. That one might seem lazy as it lays there on the ground, but it’s a surviving branch from a very old sugar maple that’s been gone for decades. That branch had reached the ground and successfully re-rooted. An example of that same process can be seen on the sugar maple behind the one your looking at now. In early Spring throughout New York, New England and Canada, sugar maples are tapped for the sugary sap within. After long hours of boiling over wood fires most of the water evaporates, leaving the sweet maple syrup behind. Brightly colored in the fall, the leaves may be yellow, red, orange or gold. The buds are eaten by deer.