Silver maple vs Hard maple - ID?

[fields_mj]

I went out the other day to cut some shooting lanes for a deer stand, and found that a decent size maple had blown down, and the top was blocking the lane way. I cleared the lane out last night so that we could drive through. I'm pretty sure that it's a silver maple, but I've never taken the time to learn how to tell the difference between the two. I didn't know if anyone had any good pics of the two that would help me distinguish between them.

The tree was still in full bloom when it blew down, but the leaves had since withered up enough that they aren't any good to help identify anything. Plus the wood was very green (wet), so trying to tell by weight didn't help me much. I'm 90% certain that it's silver maple, and if nobody cuts it this fall, I will probably drag it out and cut it up to burn early and late next year. Either way, I'd just like to know how to tell them apart for future use.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Agrarian]

The bigger silver maples in my area have bark that looks like shagbark hickory. I've seen this on trees that are 16" diameter and up. Other than the leaves, I wouldn't know how to tell the younger ones. Others here I'm sure would know.

 

[CountryBoy19]

If you can possibly find a leaf that isn't shriveled too bad and you can flatten it back out a bit (maybe soak it in water for a while) then it will help a lot. Silver maple has very deep crotches in the leaves as seen below.

Sugar maple doesn't have as deep of crotches and the leaves seem "fatter".

 

[Laird]

The twigs of the two maples look different. Hard to describe so I'll show the pictures.

Silver Maple Twig

Sugar Maple Twig

 

[smokinj]

The bigger silver maples in my area have bark that looks like shagbark hickory. I've seen this on trees that are 16" diameter and up. Other than the leaves, I wouldn't know how to tell the younger ones. Others here I'm sure would know.

Not quite as shagy as hickory and also has a silver look to it. Hence silver maple.

 

[TJ-Bill]

I have a hard time with telling trees apart. I can tell the difference between a cedar and a Maple and other trees but not between a Rock, sugar or silver Maple. Even the fir trees have me all confused. I can see the differences when I look at the bark but can never remember which is which.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Not quite as shagy as hickory and also has a silver look to it. Hence silver maple.

You have to be careful IDing sugar vs. silver by bark alone. Sugar maple can, and often does have shaggy, silver/gray bark very similar silver maple. To the untrained eye (which it appears in this case) one can be tricked by this.

I just got done cutting a couple cords of Sugar maple (VERY CLEARLY Sugar maple from the leaves) that had bark that looked more typical to silver maples. Also, a quick google search of sugar maple bark brings up several images that look similar to that of silver maple (one such image below).

And another

 

[fields_mj]

I have a hard time with telling trees apart. I can tell the difference between a cedar and a Maple and other trees but not between a Rock, sugar or silver Maple. Even the fir trees have me all confused. I can see the differences when I look at the bark but can never remember which is which.

At least I'm not the only one... My dad can walk up to a tree and tell you exactly what it is dead or alive. The guy who owned the farm we cut on grew up running a saw mill and was an inspector for the air force in WWII. He inspected the wood used to build gliders and planes. He could identify what kind of wood it was just looking at the saw dust. If he had the bark or a leaf to look at, I think he could have done it in his sleep with both hands tied behind is back.... He bought the farm (250 acres) back in the 50's, and had the mature walnut trees harvested the next year and paid the farm off with the proceeds.... I have to think he had a big smile on his face when he signed the paperwork at the bank to buy it. I miss that ol guy. As for me, I have a hard time telling much of anything apart. I can ID some ash, shaggbark, oak, locust, beach, and sycamore but that's about it.

Funny storey about Sycamore, when we were dating, my wife had found a sycamore leaf while on a walk at a local state park. Of course it was about as big as her head, and she thought it was some amazing freek of nature. She brought it home and showed me. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was normal, but my mom broke the news to her gently.... LOL

 

[smokinj]

You have to be careful IDing sugar vs. silver by bark alone. Sugar maple can, and often does have shaggy, silver/gray bark very similar silver maple. To the untrained eye (which it appears in this case) one can be tricked by this.

I just got done cutting a couple cords of Sugar maple (VERY CLEARLY Sugar maple from the leaves) that had bark that looked more typical to silver maples. Also, a quick google search of sugar maple bark brings up several images that look similar to that of silver maple (one such image below).

And another

Nice pic's sugar will also hold a much better shape. After cutting down 25 or 20 it becomes easy...."I have a tree in my front yard its kinda big can you cut it down" 50+ inchs and 100 hour and that jobs Done!

 

[fields_mj]

I'll have to take a look at the twigs next time I go out. It's actually one of 3 or 4 forks of the tree. The base of this fork probably measures close to 30" I didn't walk back into the brush to take that close of a look. The leaves on the downed fork are very dark brown, dried, and brittle, so I'm not going to bother trying to salvage one of them. The other forks are still stading, and there are plenty of saplings around it for me to look at, so I should be able to make a pretty good determination based on their leaves. There were also a few limbs layind across the road way that ranged from 3 to 8 inches across that I cut into firewood lengths and piled to the side. I could always throw one in the truck and let dad take a look at it next time I see him.

Thanks!!
Mark

 

[taylor6400]

Should be able to tell once you start cutting...and especially splitting.

 

[fields_mj]

Both should produce about the same quality of firewood and I wouldn't worry to much about which was which.

Around here, hard maple is considered to be a hardwood, and the firewood is considered to be pretty good. Not as good as locust or hickory, but not too far off. Soft or Silver maple, on the otherhand, is considered to be more of a soft wood, and most folks won't bother with it. We've found that it's good to burn in the spring and fall when you don't need a lot of heat, but want to keep a fire going. Days where it gets up into the upper 40s and 50s, but gets down into the low 30's at night. Last year, I didn't have anything but hickory, locust, ash, and white oak. I had burned most of the ash by the time spring rolled around. The coolest I could get the house was 80 degrees during the day with the doors and a few windows open. Even if somone else beats me to the firewood, they won't bother with the trunk. That will get me at least one good truckload which will be enough "soft" wood for next year.

 

[TJ-Bill]

around here any maple is considered a hardwood. I have at least 2-3 different kinda of maple in this years fire wood. I'll take a few pics and maybe you guys can tell me what I'm burning. I figure it was sugar maple and rock maple, but some of the smaller wood seems to have smoother bark.

 

[Boike]

are sugar maple and rock maple two different species? Around here we have plenty of Silver Maple, but it is not much of a 'choice' wood. Seems to burn quick and go punky if it sticks around for long. The sugar maple is a much better burn, but you don't find much of it around here.

 

[super3]

I've been heating with wood since 1978 and wouldn't split too many hairs between the differing qualities of maple firewoods. Differences...yes....but like all wood.....they still contain almost exactly the same btu's per pound when seasoned.
I burn all and any wood with great pride!

Not so on all the charts. Hard maple 29.7 Shagbark hickory 27.5 Soft maple 19.1 to 24. depending on what site you are looking at. Ever burned any hard maple from this part of the country?

 

[DSS]

are sugar maple and rock maple two different species? Around here we have plenty of Silver Maple, but it is not much of a 'choice' wood. Seems to burn quick and go punky if it sticks around for long. The sugar maple is a much better burn, but you don't find much of it around here.

Thats what I was wondering..I know there is hard and soft maple, but i thought sugar and rock maple were the same tree. It's pretty much the best firewood you can find in this part of the world.

 

[TJ-Bill]

All I know is that whatever we have around here is good to burn. Does surgar maple have rough bark when it's younger?

Here's the pics from my pile.. I thought what was in the pics was all maple but now that I look at the difference maybe the smoother ones are young oak??

Maple on the right. whats on the left?

another type of maple with a rough but smaller bark.

Oak or maple?

Maple on the top.. I thought the smaller peice to the right was maple aswell

Whatever it is I`m burning it all!!!!

 

[Curlycherry1]

All I know is that whatever we have around here is good to burn. Does surgar maple have rough bark when it's younger?

Here's the pics from my pile.. I thought what was in the pics was all maple but now that I look at the difference maybe the smoother ones are young oak??

Maple on the right. whats on the left?

another type of maple with a rough but smaller bark.

Oak or maple?

Maple on the top.. I thought the smaller peice to the right was maple aswell

Whatever it is I`m burning it all!!!!

You got red or "soft" maple there. True silver maple is a type of "soft" maple much like red maple but the reason it is called silver maple is because in a wind storm the bottom of the leaves look silver. Normal common soft maple does not look like that in a wind storm. Silver maple is an ornamental tree typcially grown in people's yards. I have heard of it growing wild in areas, but never seen it first hand. I have seen lots of it in people's yards. Rock and sugar maple are interchangable back where I come from. There is also black maple which is a form of hard maple that looks different in that the bark is black, more black than common sugar maples.

 

[Curlycherry1]

Here ya go, this place identifies the common maples that grow in the forest and are not classified as ornamentals. These are the natives to North America.

http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/maple-tree-identification.php

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Note that I said "btu's per pound"...


.....not btu's per cord!

All wood has almost exactly the same btu's per pound when seasoned.

True, Dan, but we don't cut, split, stack, carry, load, and burn by the pound. We do ALL of that by the piece or by volume. That's where the difference shows up, and in how long it will last before going punky.

While poplar may have the same BTUs per pound as oak, I have to work a lot harder to get those same BTUs from poplar (more trips, more cuts, more splits), it won't hold a fire all night in the colder weather, and it will rot if I try to keep it too long.

All that makes a HUGE difference in which one I want to harvest, pound-for-pound BTU equivalence notwithstanding.