Since arbor is the Latin word for tree, Arbor Day is a celebration all about trees. Read about the history of Arbor Day.
On this day, let us take a moment to admire the State Tree of New York, the Sugar Maple. View a video on how to identify this tree.
Four seasons of a Sugar Maple tree. Photo Source: Kitty Frazier
- Sometimes called hard maple, Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) is one of the largest and more important of our hardwood trees in all of North America.
- Its sap is used to make maple syrup because its sugar content is twice that of any other maple species; 34 gallons of sap are required to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup (or 8 pounds of maple sugar). Maple sugaring of American Indians was first observed by European settlers in early 1600s.
- Trees seldom flower until they are at least 22 years old, but they can live 300 to 400 years.
- Twigs and foliage reportedly comprise up to 50% of the diet of a White-tailed Deer and Sugar Maples are among the ten species of trees that provide as much as 50% of the Porcupine’s winter diet.
- Songbirds that consume the seeds, buds, and flowers include American Goldfinch and Evening Grosbeak. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers use Sugar Maples as a source of sap.
- Leaves turn bright shades of gold and red colors in autumn, contributing to New York’s spectacular fall foliage. My favorite shades are those in the orange to salmon range.
Here are a couple of trees in bloom at this time as well as some curious information about each:
Canada Plum bloom – Photo Credit = R.W. Smith
Canada Plum (Prunus nigra) –
- This is the northernmost species of native plum in the U.S.; it was first recorded along the St. Lawrence River in 1535 by Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), French explorer.
- Early settlers in the western U.S. and Canada made use of these wild plums for dried fruit, as popularized by the autobiographical novel On the Banks of Plum Creek, the fourth book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series.
- An infusion of the inner bark has been used in the treatment of colds.
- Wildlife that feed on the fruit or pits include American Black Bear (fruits), Ruffed Grouse (fruits), Deer Mouse (plum pits), and Eastern Box Turtle (fallen fruits).
- Menominee and Chippewa peoples used plum stones as dice (each carved to represent various images – a fish, a hand, a man, a canoe) in a game wherein the object was to make the figures stand upright.
Northern Prickly Ash
Northern Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) –
- Sometimes commonly called toothache tree because American Indians chewed the bark (producing a numbing effect) for relief from toothache pain.
- An infusion made from its bark or a salve made from its grated root was used by American Indians as an external antirheumatic for swollen joints.
- Unripened and ripened fruits can be used as a pepper substitute in cooking.
- Its fruit has been used in magical potions as a perfume to attract love.
- Caterpillars of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes) feed on its foliage.
Happy trails!
Curious By Nature 