The Sugar Maple is a large tree (70 feet) with a bole diameter of three feet. It is also known as the Hard Maple or Rock Maple. The trunk is dark brown with grayish vertical grooves and ridges. Leaves are three to eight inches long and five-lobed with narrow basal lobe. They are deeply indented with dark green hairless tops and light green and hairless underneath. The twigs are reddish with glossy stalks and pointy brown buds. The seed pods have red or brown wings and are about one inch long. Flowers are yellow and hang in clusters from twig ends and along twigs.

The growing region is from Illinois to Nova Scotia. Maple is a hardwood which provides ornamental value and shade to many homes and syrup/sugar from the sap extract. The wood is a small portion of the annual lumber in the United States. Maple trees are generally fast-growing and long-lived. The bark and seed pods (keys or samaras) are used as a food supply by deer, porcupine and birds.