Maple??

[Ken Louis]

Trying to identify this tree stump. I'm not from the area. Had the tree cut down during the winter (no leaves at the time). Saved quite a bit of raw lumber from the cut and I'm curious what it is. This is a pic of a small outgrowth of leaves on the side of the stump that just grew out. I believe it's some kind of maple, right? Thanks!

261990

[Ron Kellison]

Looks like hard (sugar) maple to me! Of course, being Canadian, perhaps I'm just being patriotic!

Best regards,

Ron

[Bill Bukovec]

I'd say sugar maple also.

Did the stump leak any sap?

If so, was it sweet? (Not that I'm calling anyone a sap sucker ;) )

Enjoy the wood.

[Morey St. Denis]

To my eye, the young leaf shape is more classically of Red Maple. Even now the stalks of several leaves already appear to be red in color. Red Maple will have reddish leaf stalks throughout summer growth. Any smaller branches left from the cut? Over winter the leafless twigs of red maple trees commonly retain a lustrous red color. Considered among the multiple "soft" maples, the wood is neither as dense nor quite as strong as Sugar Maple, but it can be nicely figured and otherwise similar in appearance to hard maple. Hope you made the effort to green wood seal those cut ends before laying it away over the winter. Likely a good time to consider quarter-sawing some heavy slabs soon to begin the drying process, unless you wish to cultivate potential spalting.

[Kevin Bourque]

FWIW I was thinking red maple also. The wood is average looking, but it spalts nicely. I had 2 red maples that fell in our pastures that took me about 1 year to remove and they all were heavily spalted. I think they were standing dead trees when they fell over so I'm not sure if the spalt occurred before or after they blew over.

[Danny Hamsley]

Here is the way to tell if it is sugar maple or red maple. On sugar maple, the leaf margins between the lobes are entire, that is, they are not toothed. In red maple, the leaf margins between the lobes are toothed. It is kind of hard to see in the pic, but it looks like to me that I can see teeth on the margins between the lobes. Look at these two links and look at the leaf margins between the lobes and you will see what I am talking about.

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=1

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=2

[Ken Louis]

Thanks for everybody's inputs! Several of you asked if there was any sap visible. Checked the stump and the raw timber and didn't notice any sap.

Danny, your links were especially helpful. I searched through all the Aceraceae (maple) trees at this website. Compared leaves and this is the closest match I could find, a silver maple:

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=5 (http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=5)

The pic in my original post shows leaves (growing from a stump) that are red, and very much immature. Here's a pic of a more mature leaf (pic on the right) from one of two maple trees in our front yard which I'm relatively certain is the same species. The picture on the left is a silver maple leaf from the above link.

There's some difference in the structure, but I'm guessing it may be due to the immaturity of my leaf sample (spring vs. summer??).

What's everybody think? Silver Maple??

[Danny Hamsley]

Yes, you have silver maple.