Types of Maple Trees

Maple trees are abundant in the United States and Canada with a maple leaf being featured in the Canadian flag. There is more than 100 different maple species of Maple trees and they are found throughout the world. Below you will learn more about the different types of Maple trees.

6 Different Types of Maple Trees

There are more than 6 types of Maple trees, but these are the main ones found and used in North America:

·      Sugar maple: The sugar maple tree is the tree used to make maple syrup. They can reach heights from 80 to 110 feet tall. The wood that comes from this tree is a hardwood maple and it is commonly used in the manufacturing of flooring, cabinets, furniture and other finished wood products such as wood cutting boards. It has a janka value of 1450.

·      Red maple: The red maple is the most abundant variety of maple tree in North America. It's named for it's red bark covering limbs and leaf stems. When autumn arrives, its leaves turn a vibrant red color. Red maples are more commonly used as a landscape tree. They can reach a height of approximatively fifty feet tall. 

·      Silver maple: Silver maples have an exceptionally fast growth rate and because of this they can provide shade much earlier than other trees. They are very common in North America and the wood they produce is a softwood maple.

·      Black maple: The black maple is considered a subspecies of sugar maple. It produces a hardwood maple just like the Sugar Maple. The most significant difference between the two trees are the leaves they produce.

·      Boxelder maple: Boxelders don't look like maples trees do because they produce leaves that bear no resemblance to the pointed leaf shape associated with maple leaves. Boxelders are abundant in the central United States and typically reach a mature height of about 80 feet tall. It is a fast-growing but also short-lived tree.

·      Paperbark maple: Paperbark maples are named for their peeling, papery bark that has a red hue which ressembles blood. More commonly found in Asia, this tree has a slow growth habit but can reach a height of twenty-five feet tall.

There are more subspecies of Maple trees around the world but these are the main ones found in North America, check out our wood species page for more information.