The sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is the state tree of West Virginia. One of its leaves is also mostly famously displayed on the Canadian flag.
Throughout its range, the syrup of this maple is tapped in the late winter to make maple syrup.
These trees are very common around here, but in this particular area, the red maples (A. rubrum) are a bit more common.
Mmmm maple syrup!
My largest and oldest tree here is silver maple. I just finished cleaning rain gutters of one and two inch silver maples from blown seeds. Two years ago replanted some of this misdirected trees and now are about three to four feet high.
These trees are beautiful… and I am a major fan of the delicious syrup they produce.
Tell me, is maple syrup less efficient at making people obese than corn syrup?
Not only maple syrup. .. maple sugar candy (pure maple sugar); not easy to find, but oh my how it pleases the mouth. Never mind what it might do to one’s blood sugar.
You can get it in West Virginia. The gift shops at about every state park used to carry it. It is a bit harder to get these days.
You can sugar other maple species–even Norway Maple–but the Sugar Maple is far superior in this regard.