There has been an ongoing question and discussion regarding sugar-maples and their leaves. Our friend Julie Helms at Wooly Acres (Sugar or Red? ) has an unidentified maple tree growing with red leaves. Some readers say it's a sugar-maple, others say it's a red maple.
I couldn't resist throwing my maple leaves into this discussion, --because I know I have genuine sugar-maples.
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| Sugar-Maple leaves |
The following picture is a leaf from the same sugar-maple tree after it turned bright red, fell on the ground, and unfortunately, faded a lot.
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| Depending on the weather, the same Sugar-Maple leaves turn red |
Notice the leaf in this picture is now faded, but the leaves were very bright red before they dropped on the ground.
Sugar-maples DO have the curious characteristic of leaves changing red or not, depending upon the severity of frost, the amount of sugar in their leaves, and perhaps even the micro climate around them. Even with trees adjacent to one another, one may turn bright red one year and not the next, and the other may do the opposite.
Regardless, it's a sweet discussion, so grow sugar maples--the maple syrup from sugar maples is wonderful stuff!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
