Tapping big leaf maple trees12/6/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Its fine-grained, pale brown wood is commercially valuable for making musical instruments and furniture veneer.īigleaf maple occurs in Whiskeytown NRA, Redwood N&SP, Oregon Caves NM&P, and Crater Lake NP.The bigleaf maple can produce tiny canopy roots that grow into epiphyte-derived canopy soil to help nourish the tree itself.Like some other maples, bigleaf maple produces sap that can be boiled down to a mineral-rich and delicious maple syrup.Pacific Northwest tribes have used bigleaf maple for medicinal purposes, for making wooden canoe paddles, and more.These seeds “helicopter” down on windy days in the late fall. ![]() A maple tree also has seeds that look and fly like a helicopter. Maple trees have pointed leaves that look like hands. The easiest way to decide if a tree is a maple tree is to look at its leaves and seeds. The wings on the seeds are large, up to 5 cm (2 in) long, and shaped in an upside-down V. Step 2: Look for Maple Leaves and Helicopter Seeds. One tree contains both male and female flowers, making it monoecious, which means “single house.” Insects pollinate the flowers in the next few weeks, which eventually produce large, brownish, double-winged seeds (samaras). A cluster of pendent yellowish-green flowers (raceme) emerges in April–May just as the new leaves are popping open. Reproduction begins at about 10 years for bigleaf maples. You should also only take up to 10 of the sap from the tree each year and remove the tap before the spring growth period. It grows largest in the moist soils of river bottoms and at the base of foothills, but tolerates dry sites as well.īigleaf maple leaves and flowers. Habitat and Distributionīigleaf maple grows in low to mid elevations in coastal ranges from Alaska through California, and largely west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada crests. In a streamside mix of hardwood and conifer trees, a mature bigleaf maple will be the one most likely draped in mosses, lichens, and ferns. And it stands out in a crowd when it comes to decor. The bigleaf maple is the tallest maple in North America, reaching over 30 m (100 ft) in some areas. Giant leaves are not its only distinctive feature. The young bark is smooth and grayish-brown, eventually becoming red-brown and deeply fissured with age. Its leaves and branches grow in an opposite formation, and spread into a domed canopy at maturity. These goliath photosynthesizers measure up to 30 cm (12 in) wide and almost as long, a singular feature that distinguishes the bigleaf maple from others in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae (though some still place it in Aceraceae). True to its name, it dangles unusually large, 5-lobed, palmate (palm-shaped) leaves from its branches. We also recommend keeping an eye out for bigleaf tapping workshops at extension and small farm and forest landowner events.The bigleaf maple ( Acer macrophyllum), also known as the Oregon maple, is a deciduous, long-lived tree native to the Pacific Northwest. If you feel more comfortable learning through in-person instruction we highly recommend getting on the mailing list for the Oregon Maple Project who offer training opportunities for hobbyists. ![]() If you are good at figuring things out with a little reading, watching online demonstration videos (e.g., search YouTube for bigleaf maple tapping), and a basic starter kit you can plunge right in. Sugaring bigleaf maple trees as a hobby is easy, fun, and sustainable with a few supplies and some training. Most walnut syrup sugaring information refers to black walnut from the Eastern United States and Canada. English walnut is a common orchard crop in Oregon and we are just starting as of 2022 to look at best practices for tapping it. Birch is more common in Alaska and Northern Canada and you will find some helpful guides and case studies if you search for resources in those geographic areas. The Oregon Tree Tappers project is primarily focused on bigleaf maple at this time, but think of it as a case study because most of the techniques generally apply to the other tree species. "Sugaring" is a commonly used term for tapping and processing sap from maple and other trees with sweet edible saps, like walnut and birch. ![]()
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