Maple Tree Species Bring a Variety of Sizes, Shapes, and Leaf Colors to the Landscape

Today is an absolutely dreary day in Ohio.

As I was coming up to the house, I noticed that my neighbors had tapped the maple trees on their property for maple syrup production. A far more clever person than I am, my neighbor is an engineer by trade who not only makes his own maple syrup, but also carves his own wood to make some great furniture and wood bowls.
　
This site of the white buckets hanging from the tree help provide for the idea of this column: the landscape value of the maple tree. Right up there with the oak tree, the maple tree species is one of my favorite trees.

There are at least one hundred species of maple in the world. Fourteen of these are native to the United States. The following four species and their cultivars are used quite extensively in the landscape trade:

• Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
• Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
• Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
• Norway Maple (Acer platanoides)
• Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)

For many reasons the maple tree species makes a great addition to the landscape. Depending on the species of maple tree and the species' cultivar (a cultivated variety of a plant that has been deliberately selected for its desirability) there are many reasons the maple tree species is very popular.

Unlike the oak tree species, which generally consists of large trees without any remarkable varied seasonal characteristics, the maple species has varieties, which vary in size with many different shapes and leaf colors.

Some species of maple trees may be large shade trees as the fast growing Silver Maple. Other species as the Japanese Maple grows small (20’ or less) and can be successfully trimmed to remain small. The smaller sized Japanese Maple and its cultivars offer many different landscape shapes and different leaf color foliage and textures for the landscape. Tree cultivars of the Norway Maple not only have green leaves, but many Norway Maple cultivars have permanent summer foliage colors of red; yellow, or variegated. The Red Maple is a medium sized shade tree in most landscapes and many of its cultivars are selected for their fall colors of yellows, orange-reds, and very deep reds.
　
In the next several blogs, I will be discussing more specifics regarding the landscape value of particular maple tree species for home and business landscapes.