Maple is common in North America, Europe, Asia. It grows, on average, up to 40 meters in height. About 20 types of maple grow in Russia. Almost all species can be found in the Caucasus. Maple is found in almost the entire territory of Russia, from the southern part to the Far East. But in Siberia, maple does not grow. Maple has a very beautiful crown.

That is why it is often planted in parks, squares, used in landscape design. The lifespan of maple is typically up to 300 years.

Maple wood.

Maple wood is considered heartwood. Because of the indistinguishability of the sapwood and the heartwood. Maple wood has a light color, almost white, sometimes with a slight yellowness.

The dark, thin, heart-shaped rays of maple wood give it a unique pattern when sawed. Therefore, maple wood is considered beautiful, it is used to make decorative items from wood, various crafts.

Maple wood growing in Russia is dense, durable, finely porous, wear-resistant. Maple requires slow natural drying. In this sense, maple wood is capricious. When drying quickly, the wood often develops cracks when it dries out.

A huge number of items are made from maple wood. This is due to excellent technical, mechanical characteristics and texture aesthetics. Most often, stairs, railings, parquet, handles, parts of musical instruments, furniture, chess pieces, oars, dishes, and so on are made from maple.

Maple wood lends itself well to processing. She perfectly accepts paints. Wonderful . Maple wood is resistant to cracking, it is convenient to work with it, making objects where you need to cut small, decorative, figured holes.

If maple wood is treated with anti-rotting compounds, then it can be safely used in exterior decoration and buildings. For example, build a terrace, benches, parts of playgrounds and so on.

Maple. Beneficial features.

• maple contains a large number of vitamins A, C, tannins in leaves, bark, roots and seeds.
• Well helps cough infusion of maple seeds. To do this, take 400 ml of boiling water, which pour 2 teaspoons of seeds, leave for 30 minutes and drink 30 minutes before meals.
• A decoction of maple bark helps with diarrhea, as the bark contains astringents.

Maple syrup is widely used in cooking. It is a sweet syrup with a light, pleasant woody smell and taste. Maple syrup comes from Canada.

No wonder Canada has a maple leaf on its flag. Currently, maple syrup is also produced in Russia in various regions. Maple syrup is obtained from

Botanical name: Norway maple (lat. Acer platanoides) of the Sapindaceae family (lat. Sapindaceae) of the class Magnoliopsida (lat. Magnoliópsida). On English sites Norway Maple is called Norway Maple, on Russian sites it is Common Maple or Sycamore Maple.

Growth area

Norway maple (European maple) is a native of continental Europe. Its range extends to the east and central Europe and also in Western Asia. Distribution - from France to the east to Russia, from the north of Scandinavia - to the southeast to the north of Iran. Widespread in the USA.

Morphological description of European maple

It is a deciduous tree up to 20-30 m tall with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter, with a wide round crown. The bark is gray-brown with shallow fissures.

Unlike many other maples, mature trees do not tend to develop flaky bark. The shoots are green at first, soon becoming pale brown. Winter buds are shiny, red-brown.

Leaves opposite, palmately lobed. Blades, usually in the amount of 5 pieces, sharply pointed, with large but sparse teeth. Leaf blade 7-14 cm long and 8-20 cm wide. Petiole 8-20 cm long, secretes white milky juice when crushed.

Flowers 3-6 mm long appear in April-May, yellow-green, collected 20-50 pieces in standing roundish inflorescences-scutellum.

The fruit is paired winged achenes 8-11 cl long. The seeds are disk-shaped, strongly flattened 10-15 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. Flattened wings 3–5 cm wide apart, approaching an angle of 180◦.

The paired fruit, green when ripe, acquires a yellow-brown color, splits into two lionfish, which, falling, spin in a spiral and are carried by the wind over long distances.

Features of European maple wood

The wood is yellowish white to pale reddish brown. Becomes brighter after drying. Sapwood and heartwood do not differ sharply.

Annual rings are very thin and bright, they give a silky surface when sawn radially and brightly decorative European maple board.

The grain is usually straight, sometimes wavy. The texture is fine-grained, fine with a beautiful natural sheen. The wood is moderately heavy to medium density (specific gravity 645-660 kg/m3), hard (Janke hardness: 1010 lbs). Easily processed, polished and painted, does not warp. The biostability index is slightly less than that of sycamore.

The use of Norway maple wood

Manufacture of furniture, musical instruments, veneer, finishing materials for internal works, flooring, doors, etc. Good honey plant. Norway maple inhibits the growth of native seedlings of other trees. Also European maple seedlings suffer less from herbivores than sugar maple shoots, which allows it to gain a competitive advantage in growth. Because of these properties, the species is considered invasive and has been banned in some states, such as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York State.

When deciding on the choice of wood for use as a building material or the creation of some kind of product, it is necessary to take into account all its features and properties. We should not forget about the purpose of the wood, as well as the working conditions. The most popular are hardwood trees, which have a high degree of resistance to mechanical stress and are distinguished by the beauty of the texture. One of the most popular woods for this purpose is maple.

Features of maple wood

Maple, unlike many other tree species, has a dense, straight-layered and uniform structure. In other words, the core of its trunk does not differ in quality or color from the peripheral stem part. Due to the presence of such features, maple is plastic, it can be safely bent.

Maple wood can be trimmed and processed in all sorts of ways. It practically does not crack and does not warp. Due to such qualities, maple is often made of:

• stairs;
• pieces of furniture;
• parquet;
• skis;
• balusters;
• kitchen utensils (bowls, cups, spoons, etc.).

Also important is the fact that with possible cracking, sharp chips do not form on the board, which can cause the formation of painful splinters. In addition, maple does not have such features as knotty and cross-layered. Due to this, carpentry and musical instruments, children's furniture, and toys are often made from maple.

Benefits of maple wood

The main advantages of this material include:

• relatively low cost;
• long service life;
• high degree of strength;
• excellent indicators of sound insulation and thermal insulation;
• high impact resistance and wear resistance.

Disadvantages of maple wood

This material has only one drawback - susceptibility to the development of decay processes. But, you see, such a drawback is present in almost every wood, and the indicated minus is easily eliminated. It is only necessary to impregnate the maple with special protective . However, this should be done at the beginning of processing.

Areas of application for maple wood

Floor coverings

Maple is often used for flooring. It produces a board that has a light color. Therefore, it is so popular in the manufacture of parquet and massive boards. Maple is most often used in the creation of high-tech and minimalist interiors, which welcome a lot of light and open space.

The light color of maple wood will not only be an excellent backdrop for pieces of furniture, but will also make the room cozier, more spacious and lighter. Maple is very relevant in the manufacture of floors that fit in dwellings with poor lighting, for example, when windows are obscured by densely growing trees or neighboring buildings or face the north side.

Cladding panels

In interiors that have a classic style, maple wood can be used not only as a material for the manufacture of flooring, but also for wall cladding in rooms - offices, rooms, living rooms and hallways.

However, do not forget that maple wood has such a feature as the acquisition of a honey hue after several years of being in operation. Therefore, if such a change in shade is unacceptable in the style of the interior, it is recommended to treat the wood with wood stain before use. A well-chosen shade for maple wood can give it nobility, as a result of which it will be almost impossible to distinguish it from expensive tree species.

garden design

In addition to being used for the manufacture of flooring and cladding panels, maple can also be used in the design of the garden plot. This material is perfect for the construction of various summer and outbuildings, for example:

• playgrounds;
• patio;
• terraces;
• pavilions.

You can also make garden furniture from maple - benches, chairs, tables, stools, etc. Decor elements made from maple wood will also look good. These can be trellises, pergolas, arches.

And in conclusion, I must give one more important advice. Before using maple wood, it is recommended to process it , which will become a reliable protection against the harmful effects of wood-boring insects and the development of decay processes. And at the very end, the product should be covered with several layers of protective .

According to some Serbian beliefs, a dry maple can turn green if an unjustly accused person touches it, and vice versa, a maple that has blossomed in spring can dry out if an offended, deeply unhappy person touches it. Slavic ritualism also did not bypass maple - maple branches were used to decorate houses, gates and other buildings on various holidays. In the myths of the Western and Eastern Slavs, a person who was “sworn” turns into a sycamore, often in these myths the mother, the poisoner of the child, and the wife, the poisoner of the husband, acted as the caster. Many ballads were composed about the transformation of a man into sycamore; the musicians, passing through the forest where the sycamore grew, cut it down and made musical instruments that could tell them about the fate of the man turned into a tree and the guilt of the caster. Therefore, firewood was not harvested from white maple, coffins were not made, sycamore leaves were not put in the oven under bread, since maple leaves resemble a palm with five fingers.

The maple leaf has been both the official and unofficial emblem of Canada since the early 18th century. The official emblem of the maple leaf is on the flag and coat of arms of this country. The maple leaf became an unofficial emblem, having begun to gain more and more popularity and demand in Canada as an independent symbol of this country, depicted outside the coat of arms and flag. The maple leaf shows and emphasizes the unity of the nation.

Mostly the maple genus (Acer) is deciduous trees, less often shrubs, with the exception of a few South Asian and Mediterranean evergreen species. Maples are one of the most significant among broad-leaved deciduous woody plants. This is due to a large number of species and forms, decorative qualities, beautiful wood texture and its high physical and mechanical properties, the possibility of obtaining sweet maple sap during the active growing season, a positive effect on the soil, as well as the phytoncidal properties of this tree.

The genus maple arose in the late Cretaceous period and is one of the oldest genera of angiosperms. Many researchers consider Southeast Asia to be the center of angiosperms, and Primorye and Southeast China to be the place of origin of maples. Species diversity of maple trees in the European part of Russia and the Baltic this moment less than it was in the pre-Quaternary time, which is due to climate change during the ice age and the regressive changes in the number of species and the range of the maple genus that occurred along with this. Today, the greatest species diversity of the most significant representatives of the maple genus is concentrated in the eastern part of Asia, in particular in China, in the eastern part of North America and in Central America, least of all maple trees are represented in Europe.

There is still no consensus among taxonomists about the exact number of species that make up the genus maple. According to various sources, there are from 60 to 230 species. Such a large difference in the data is due to different understandings of the scope and species criteria by scientists. The ranges of species of the genus maple in the overwhelming majority of cases are concentrated in mountainous regions and areas where the largest part of the species of this diverse genus has been preserved. Maple is one of the most constant companions of oak. Maple trees rarely form pure stands, more often they are part of hardwood, mixed or coniferous-broad-leaved stands, and maples are predominantly shade-tolerant trees. A significant part of all maple species are mesophytes, capable of withstanding drought for a short time. It is interesting that there is a direct relationship between drought resistance (or moisture-loving) and leaf size in the maple genus, the largest leaves are in the most moisture-loving species.

It is possible to determine the type of maple by the morphological features of leaves, fruits and wintering shoots, since they are very stable.

Optimal by texture soil conditions for most maple species are medium loamy, less often light loamy, fertile, moderately moist soils. Maples are predominantly mesophytic, some North American species are mesohygrophyte, and some Mediterranean species are xeromesophyte.

Most maples are propagated by seeds, some species can be propagated by layering - through the rooting of branches and shoots or cuttings.

Sap flow in maple trees begins in March, when the snow has mostly not yet melted, and the air temperature has reached -1-2 °C. When the air temperature reaches +5° С and more, sap flow is most intensive. When the temperature drops to -2 °C, sap flow stops. In the second decade of April, the growing season begins for maples, depending on weather conditions, the timing may vary, the leaf unfolding begins in the first half of May, and the duration of the leaf unfolding period is from 25 to 35 days. The timing of flowering in maples is not the same and maples are divided into three groups: early flowering (late April - early May), medium flowering (second half of May), late flowering (early June). Single-growing maples begin to bear fruit earlier than those that grow in a plantation. The maturation of lionfish occurs at different times, depending on the type of maple. Leaf coloring starts from mid-September and lasts until the second decade of October, on the northern side of the crown, leaf coloring begins earlier, the duration of autumn leaf color is from 20 to 30 days. Massive leaf fall begins in the second decade of October.

Characteristics of maple wood

Maple is a non-nuclear breed. The color of wood in most species is yellowish or pinkish with a reddish or brownish tinge, maple wood is pinkish, sycamore wood is white; maple wood tends to turn yellow over time. Many types of maple have a beautiful, varied wood texture. The decorativeness and beautiful pattern of the wood are given by narrow dark core rays, clearly visible in all cuts and especially in the radial one, they form a characteristic ripple due to their dark color and luster. The vessels of the maple are small and almost invisible to the naked eye, the annual layers are clearly visible on all cuts, the pores are unevenly located between the rings. The surface of wood is easily processed and polished, painted and covered with stain, as well as varnish. The wood splits well.

The physical and mechanical qualities of maple wood are valued much higher than those of conifers. The wood of all types of maple is heavy, finely porous, elastic, viscous, smooth, resilient, high-strength, slightly susceptible to warping, but when dried, it is subject to cracking, cracking and discoloration, therefore, it requires compliance with a certain drying regime. Maple wood is dense, the density ranges from 530 to 650 kg / m 3. The hardness of the wood varies greatly depending on the type of maple, with Canadian maple having the highest hardness. The wood of many maple species has high physical and mechanical properties, while slightly inferior to such species as oak, ash, beech, and in terms of such parameters as density and compressive strength, maple wood is on a par with oak, strength in static bending and the hardness of maple wood is about 12% higher than that of oak, ash and beech. Norway maple and small-leaved maple have the highest rates of physical and mechanical properties among maple species; they are almost identical in their properties. Field maple is inferior to them - in terms of specific work under impact bending, and Manchu maple - in strength under static load.

Conventionally, maple species can be divided into three groups according to the quality of wood.

The first, most numerous group includes moderately hard and durable wood, with a color from yellowish to pinkish, becoming more intense over time, well polished and, as a result, having excellent decorative properties. In the timber industry, the wood of this group is called the prefabricated word "maple". The second group includes more durable and hard wood, which, in addition, has a decorative pattern, beautiful texture, and a kind of soft sheen. Due to anomalies in the growth and development of trees, this wood acquires a beautiful unusual pattern and texture, which is called the "bird's eye". Such an anomaly of development is found in sugar maple, false maple, Trautfetter maple, as well as in single trees of Manchurian maple and Norway maple. In production, such wood is called "sycamore". Wood belonging to the third group is little used in the forestry industry and production, has extremely high strength and hardness and is very heavy.

anomalous wood

The anomalous bird's-eye wood got its name in Russian, probably as a result of the translation of the German word Vogelaugenahorn. A name similar in meaning to this wood with such a texture and in English language- Bird eye.

Studies do not yet provide an explanation of the reasons for the formation of the bird's eye wood texture, but it can be assumed that its formation is most likely associated with internal denormalizing factors that affect growth processes. Data on how often representatives of the maple genus with signs of bird's eye texture are found in different parts range, may be indirect evidence that the violation of growth processes may be due to genotypic variability.

Table 2. Regions
natural distribution
maple

In the seventies of the 20th century, data appeared in the literature on the reasons for the formation of a similar texture of maple wood, which stated that its formation in sugar maple is a common phenomenon, and the characteristic decorative pattern is unevenly distributed in the wood, and in the process of making veneer of such wood, the pattern may disappear and reappear. Abnormal growth zones in wood extend along the radius to several annual layers. Externally, trees with anomalous bird's eye wood differ little from trees of the same species with normal wood. In sycamore, the formation of patterned decorative wood is associated with slow radial growth and the characteristic shape of the crust in the lower part of the trunk with depressions in it, resembling traces made by a sharp metal object.

Stocks of patterned sycamore wood in forests North Caucasus and the Carpathians are very small and are shrinking every year. To prevent the disappearance of this highly valuable tree, it is necessary to take measures for its protection and artificial breeding, including using the method of micropropagation.

Representatives of the genus maple

Reaches up to 30 m in height and up to 1 m in diameter. Lives up to 150-200 years. The bark of young branches is reddish-ashy, smooth, darkens with age, becoming dark brown or sometimes black, and covered with numerous cracks. Shade-tolerant, cold-resistant, wind-resistant breed, especially in youth, demanding on moisture and soil richness, does not tolerate salinity and prolonged stagnant water. Prefers to grow on fertile light loamy and fresh sandy loams. Under natural conditions, it reproduces quite stable under the canopy of closed plantations by self-sowing and shoots. The root system is pivotal. The leaves are simple, have from five to seven lobes, dark green above, shiny, light green below, sometimes slightly pubescent along the veins. The flowers are yellowish-green, bloom at about the same time as the leaves open. Seeds ripen in September-October, with a bountiful harvest of seeds usually occurring every three to four years. The ash content of Norway maple leaves is 12.2%, the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the leaves is 1.14 and 0.239%, respectively. Norway maple is very decorative in autumn period, is a good honey plant, and is also recommended for planting as an accompanying breed in shelterbelts.

A tree up to 18 m high and up to 50 cm in diameter with a beautiful hip-shaped dense crown. In favorable conditions, it can grow up to 25 m in height and up to 70 cm in diameter.

The tree is shade tolerant and wind tolerant, slow growing, prefers fresh and moist, well-drained soils, but can also grow in dry, rocky soils.

Ash-gray shoots, young shoots are yellow or gray, the base of the buds is dark brown, the flowers are light yellow. The leaves are almost always five-lobed, pubescent only in the corners of the veins.

Blossoms in May, fruits ripen in September, a bountiful harvest usually occurs every two to three years. The wood of the shoots is dense, grayish-white in color, used for making handicrafts and souvenirs.

This tree, reaching 15 m in height, often grows in a bushy form, being a tree of coppice origin. The bark is dark gray, the branches are grayish-brown, the flowers are greenish-white. The leaves are seven-lobed, less often - three to five lobed, pubescent below, bare above. Under natural conditions, it grows in the mountain forests of Central Asia on the slopes of different exposures, on fresh and wet soils, under the canopy of walnut and spruce.

A small tree, less often a large shrub, grows up to 7 m in height, the crown is ovoid. Undemanding to the richness of the soil, shade-tolerant, moisture-loving, cold-resistant. It grows in the second layer of coniferous and mixed forests, often along the banks of rivers and streams. The bark is yellowish-gray, young shoots are pubescent, reddish-brown, later becoming naked and yellowish-brown or brownish-carmine. The leaves are five-lobed, yellowish-green above, glabrous, pubescent below. The flowers are small, yellow, collected in many-flowered inflorescences, the tree blooms after the leaves bloom. Used in landscaping, is a good honey plant.

The tree, sometimes a tall shrub, reaches a height of up to 15 m, has a beautiful rounded crown. Shade-tolerant, winter-hardy, demanding on soil richness, grows on fresh and moist soils in the undergrowth, in partial shade of mixed plantations. The bark is brownish-gray, young shoots are reddish-brown, later becoming ash-brown. The leaves are shallow three-lobed, yellowish-green, orange-carmine in autumn. The flowers are greenish-yellow, bloom at the same time as the leaves bloom. The root system is superficial, fibrous.

Most often - a small shrub, less often - a small tree, reaching 6 m in height and 0.2 m in diameter. Winter-hardy, quite picky about soil moisture, grows on sandy-stony fresh, moist, damp and wet soils along the banks of rivers and streams. It is photophilous and does not grow under the canopy of a forest stand. The bark is bluish-red, later becoming brownish or brown. The leaves are three-lobed, the middle lobe is longer than the lateral ones, dark green above, lighter below, bright red or deep yellow in autumn. The flowers are collected in dense multi-flowered inflorescences, bloom three to four weeks after the leaves bloom. The root system is superficial. It is used in urban landscaping, tannins and black paint are obtained from the leaves, a good honey plant.

Deciduous broad-leaved tree, reaching 30-40 m in height and 100-150 cm in diameter, living up to 400 years. The crown of single sycamore trees is dense and spherical, while that of trees growing in plantations is wide-cylindrical, highly decorative. The bark is fissured, its color is from light gray to ashy, the bark of the shoots has a color from light brown to brown-gray, smooth, covered with shallow cracks on the branches. Buds pointed, ovoid, yellowish-green with a reddish tinge. The leaves of the white maple are three-five-lobed, dissected into 1/3-1/2, sometimes deeper, dark green above, whitish or bluish below. The inflorescence is a multi-flowered raceme with small, up to 8 mm in diameter, yellow-green flowers. The ash content of white maple leaves is 10.2%, the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the leaves is 1.18 and 0.252%, respectively.

The natural range of the white maple is the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the middle, southern, southeastern part Western Europe, north coast Asia Minor. It grows as single trees, sometimes in groups, prefers fresh and moist soils of mountain forests, less often - valleys, does not tolerate soil salinity, does not tolerate excessive moisture and drying out.

It grows throughout the entire forest zone of the Caucasus on moist brown soils, to a greater extent if they are underlain by calcareous parent rocks. Sycamore is quite shade-tolerant and thermophilic, avoids southern slopes. White maple naturally regenerates best in sycamore and ash-sycamore plantations. Sycamore often grows in plantations with beech, the undergrowth of which can inhibit sycamore, therefore, special attention should be paid to timely thinning with simultaneous removal of beech undergrowth. In young stands of sycamore, especially in the first decade, it is advisable to carry out clarification every three years, due to the high maintenance requirements of white maple.

A beautiful ornamental tree, less often a shrub, reaching 18 m in height and up to 0.5 m in diameter, lives up to 100-200 years. Shade tolerant, drought tolerant, grows on dry and fresh rich humus soils as a second layer or undergrowth in broadleaf forests.

The crown is wide, up to 10 m in diameter, tent-shaped, dense, highly decorative. The bark is longitudinally cracking, brown-gray, the shoots are dull-ash. The leaves have three to five leathery lobes, dark green above and light green to yellowish green below, turning light yellow in autumn. The flowers are yellowish-green and bloom later than those of Norway maple. The fruits ripen at the end of September. It can be renewed by seeds, shoots, layering and root offspring.

Suitable for growing in urban areas, tolerates shearing and crown formation. It is a good honey plant, used to create forest reclamation belts, and field maple wood is used to make handicrafts.

A large shrub or spreading tree, reaching 10 m in height. Light-requiring, grows slowly, along forest edges, clearings, on rocky slopes on fresh and moist soils in mountain mixed and coniferous forests. The bark is smooth, yellowish-gray, the young shoots are green, turning gray with age. The leaves have from three to five almost uniform lobes. The flowers are yellowish, collected in 4-6-flowered inflorescences, bloom at the same time as the leaves bloom. The root system is superficial, very fibrous. The bearded maple is highly decorative and is a good honey plant.

A small tree or shrub with an oval crown, reaches a height of 9 m. It is drought-resistant, winter-hardy, tolerates soil salinization, gas- and smoke-resistant, grows on dry, fresh or moist soils singly or in small groups on edges, clearings, clearings. The bark is dark ash to almost black, the shoots are reddish-brown, pubescent in youth, later glabrous. Leaves entire or slightly lobed. Above - naked, bright green, below - pubescent along the veins and lighter. Flowers are white, fragrant. The root system is superficial, slightly fibrous. It can be renewed by shoots and layering. There is a lot of vitamin C in the leaves, up to 2% sugar in the juice, the tree can be used in landscaping, a good honey plant.

Shrub or small tree up to 8 m in height. The crown is rounded or umbrella-shaped, lends itself to molding. Shade-loving, demanding on the richness and moisture of the soil, does not tolerate excessive moisture and dryness of the soil, grows slowly. The leaves have five to nine lobes that are bright green in summer, bright red in spring, and purple in fall. Purple flowers are collected in drooping inflorescences. It is used as a highly decorative breed in landscaping in the subtropical zone.

A slender tree, less often a shrub, reaching 8 m in height and 0.4 m in diameter, with a dense tent-shaped crown.

Shade-tolerant, grows on fresh soils, but does not tolerate stagnant moisture, grows in small groups along the banks of small rivers and streams on fresh and moist well-drained sandy soils, singly under the canopy of mixed and deciduous forest stands. The bark is light gray, darkens with age, young shoots are greenish or reddish, also darkening with age. The leaves are very beautiful, nine-lobed, dissected into 1/3-1/2, bright green in summer, red in autumn. The flowers are collected in long-stemmed inflorescences, bloom after the leaves bloom.

The wood is yellowish-white, hard, viscous, used for making small handicrafts. False sibold maple is a good honey plant.

Ornamental tree or shrub up to 12 m in height. Shade-tolerant, warm and moisture-loving, winter-hardy, demanding on the soil, grows as individual trees or in small groups on fresh and moist soils in dense coniferous or mixed forests. The bark is smooth, green, becoming grayish-greenish with age, the young shoots are dark carmine. The leaves are wide, rich green above, lighter below, three-lobed, in autumn they acquire a yellowish-golden color. The flowers are greenish-yellow, collected in an inflorescence-brush, bloom after the leaves bloom. The root system is superficial, fibrous, with a pronounced tap root. The juice contains up to 1.5% sugar. It can be used in plantings, it has a high decorative effect due to the beauty of the bark, the shape of the leaves and their autumn color.

A tree with a straight trunk, reaches up to 20 m in height and up to 0.6 in diameter. It grows on moist and fresh soils in mixed and deciduous forests, most often in river valleys. Crown of the correct rounded shape. The bark is grayish-brown, the shoots are reddish-brown. The leaves are compound, trifoliate, dark green above in summer, lighter below, purple in autumn. Inflorescences bloom at the same time as the leaves. The root system is superficial. Used for landscaping, good honey plant. The juice contains up to 2% sugar.

A tree reaching 40 m in height and 1 m in diameter, with a wide spreading tent-shaped crown. It grows on wet and damp soils, including those with stagnant moisture, along river valleys. Grows well in moist organic and mineral soils, the largest red maple trees grow in swampy areas. The bark is dark gray, the shoots are red. The leaves are three-five-lobed, dark green and shiny above in summer, glaucous or whitish below, reddish-green in spring, orange-red in autumn. The flowers are red, less often - yellowish, bloom before the leaves. Trees growing in damp places have a shallow root system, while in dry and stony places a tap root develops.

Reaches up to 40 m in height and up to 1.5 in diameter, the crown is wide, with drooping branches. Shade-tolerant, cold-resistant, tolerates dry air, grows quite quickly on moist, damp and wet soils along flooded sandy banks of rivers. The branches are covered with light ash bark, the shoots are yellowish-brown. The leaves are five-lobed, bright green above in summer, white-silver below, pubescent when young, golden yellow in autumn. It blooms before the leaves bloom, the flowers are collected in small-flowered inflorescences. The root system is widely spread, sometimes going quite deep into the soil. The tree is used to produce maple sugar and syrup, as well as for landscaping.

Reaches 25 m in height and 1 m in diameter, often multi-stemmed, the crown is round or ovoid, with drooping branches. It is cold-resistant, drought- and heat-resistant, short-lived, grows quickly on soils - from fresh to wet, along the banks and valleys of rivers and lakes. Shoots are reddish-brown, sometimes dark green, often with a waxy bluish coating. The leaves are pinnately compound, the leaflets are usually three to five, but may be seven or nine. Blooms before the leaves open. The root system is superficial, but with a taproot. Widely used in landscaping. The leaves contain a lot of vitamin C. The wood is soft, brittle, brittle.

A tree reaching a height of 40 m and 0.5 m in diameter, living 300-400 years, has a dense, spreading crown. It grows on fresh, well-drained soils in the zone of mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. The bark is gray with a hint of ash or brown, darkens with age, the branches are red-brown. The root system is quite deep. Simple leaves usually have five lobes, in summer the leaves are shiny, bright green above, paler and rough below, turning bright red and yellow-orange in autumn. The flowers are small, yellowish-green, collected in clusters of 8-14 in a brush. The ash content of sugar maple leaves is 10.4%, the phosphorus content in the leaves is 0.236%.

Use of maple wood

The excellent physical and mechanical properties of maple wood provide high-quality material for sawmill production. In Europe, white maple and Norway maple are used as building timber, as well as wood for making furniture, in North America - sugar maple and black maple, called "American hard maple", silver maple and red maple, called "American soft maple". In East Asia, the small-leaved maple is widely used. Mostly maple is used to make furniture, and also use it in interior decoration. In the middle of the 20th century, maple veneer with a smooth or serpentine grain pattern, due to its beautiful natural color, was a sought-after material for exterior decoration and furniture design. But due to the tendency of maple wood to darken over time and acquire yellowish tinge it quickly ceased to be widely used as front panels. Now maple wood is used for furniture finishing. Maple wood is also used for the manufacture of solid wood countertops, parquet and stairs, as maple is highly resistant to abrasion.

In the old days, light maple wood was used for the manufacture of not only furniture, but also various household and kitchen items, spinning wheels, rifle butts, shoe nails, wheel rims, ax handles, and oars. Today, maple wood is used to make household and kitchen appliances, toys, wooden parts of cars, turning crafts, and it is also used to make intarsia. Wood of a beautiful texture without cracks and defects, amenable to polishing, is used for making souvenirs. In addition, maple is a musical tree. Since ancient times, smooth-layered, hard, with a uniform arrangement of annual layers, sycamore wood has been used as decorative and resonant wood in the manufacture of bodies of stringed and wind musical instruments, soundboards and guitar necks.

Maples are good honey plants, an important source of pollen for bees in early spring, so they are often planted near apiaries. The honey productivity of maple reaches 100-200 kg per 1 ha of plantations. Maple is also used in medicine. IN traditional medicine Norway maple juice, its fruits and young leaves are used, which is due to its antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, restorative and analgesic effect.

The wood of the trunks and burls of certain types of maple is especially valued, which, as a result of the occurrence of anomalies during growth, has a decorative curly wood structure. Veneer is usually made from such wood for decorative furniture finishing.

The short-grained maple wood can be used to make pulp, for this purpose it is mixed with softwood pulp. Small-leaved maple wood can be used to produce plywood higher grades, the output of which from plywood logs will be one and a half to two times higher than from plywood logs of flat birch. Bark different types maple contains tannin, tannins and sugary substances.

Maples are used in ornamental gardening and green building for group and alley plantings and creating hedges. They are valued for the beauty of the crown and the shape of the leaves, the color of the bark, openwork foliage, rich green in summer and bright yellow and bright red in autumn. Almost all types of maples are used as ornamental trees, for many species, different garden forms have been bred, differing in leaf color or crown shape.

Since the spring maple sap of some maple species contains up to 3% sugars, and sugar maple - up to 4%, in some regions maple tapping is a separate industry. This trade is especially widely developed in the USA and Canada, where sugar maple is used on an industrial scale. As a result of the processing of maple juice by boiling and cleaning, maple syrup and sugar are obtained for the confectionery industry. The taste of maple sugar is different from the usual beet sugar, and some people prefer it.

Elena KARPOVA, Anton KUZNETSOV,
cand. biol. Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of General Ecology,
plant physiology and wood science SPbGLTU

Acer, or maple, is a genus with more than 150 species of trees and shrubs, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, including throughout the European part and in temperate latitudes Asia. There are dozens of maple species in Russia. Most of them are unpretentious, shade-tolerant, frost-resistant, love well-moistened fertile soils, but some also grow on poor soils. For the most part, these are deciduous shrubs and trees; there are several evergreen species in Central Asia.

Description

The height of maples reaches 40 m, depending on the species and environmental conditions, but stands up to 10–15 m are more common. The trunks are usually thin, with light brown, brown or gray bark with small cracks, the crowns are dense, round and wide. The root system is powerful and developed, able to penetrate to great depths. These trees live for about 200 years, but in a favorable natural environment able to become centenarians - able to grow up to 500 years.

A distinctive feature of maples is the beautiful shape of the leaves. Most of them are large, palm-shaped - consisting of several blades, pointed or carved. In addition to the usual green color, the foliage of many species and varieties - Japanese, Norway maple (Royal Red, Kimson King and others) - has a purple, bright red or dark pink color. Maples bloom in early spring, inflorescences are thin light yellow or greenish panicles, fruits are double lionfish with seeds, ripen in September.

Maples, thanks to their beautiful decorative foliage, are suitable for landscaping: they are planted in gardens, parks, and adjacent territories in order to create cozy beautiful landscapes, shade, and clean the air from dust and pollution.

Maple wood is widely used in industry, being a practical and high-quality building material.

Maple species

Among the species diversity of maple, there are several of the most common and popular.

holly

This species is one of the most famous, includes several varieties, grows throughout the European part of Russia. Another name for maple: plane tree or plane leaf - according to the characteristic shape of the leaves (pictured).

This species includes many decorative forms that differ in the height of the trunks, the size and density of the crown, and the shade of the leaves. Norway maple is demanding on the composition of soils, prefers moderately moist, fertile, slightly acidic soils, does not tolerate sandstones and rocky lands. In height, such trees reach 20-30 m, have a wide rounded crown. The bark is light gray, quite smooth in young maples, becoming covered with cracks with age. The size of the leaves is about 15–18 cm, they are located on long thin cuttings, have a five-lobed shape with pronounced notches: the middle lobes protrude far forward, the lateral ones are slightly shorter. There are types of maple with or foliage: small, serrated, elongated leaves transversely located on long cuttings.

In autumn, the green maple leaves take on vibrant yellows, oranges, reds and burgundy hues, creating a picturesque natural carnival of colors. The five-lobed maple leaf is featured on the national flag of Canada.

Trees grow quickly, especially in the first years after planting, their life span is up to 200 years. Holly maples are immune to the polluted air of cities, therefore they are suitable for landscaping streets and creating beautiful landscapes. They are planted along roads, in yards, in squares, parks.

The holly maple is distributed throughout the European territory, in Western Siberia, temperate zone North American continent.

American

This tree is widespread in the northern and eastern regions of the United States, being the official symbol of some states. Another name for the species is sugar maple. It is from the juice of its wood that the famous maple syrup is made, and lumber is used in construction. resistant to cold climates, able to grow up to 30-40 m, has a thick dark bark and a dense crown.

White

The operational characteristics of maple are quite high: it is not subject to warping and deformation, tolerates moisture well, and is resistant to shock loads.