Gorgeous Sugar Maples

Gorgeous Sugar Maples	Elisa Campbell
	August 20, 2009

In Amherst, MA, there is an isolated hill with the somewhat misleading
name of Mt Pollux. After the previous owner gave up the orchards there a
few decades ago, the town purchased the top as a conservation area
because of the wonderful, almost 360 degree views from it. The top is
crowned by two lovely sugar maples. While from a distance they appear
similar, up close it’s clear that one is much older than the other. I’ve
become interested in the different branch structure of the two; it seems
to me that middle-aged sugar maples have lots of branches about the same
size, then, as they get older, lose many of them and end up with a few
massive ones. Often they are hollow (I’ve seen light through the trunks
of some of them, and it seems the tree is nothing but bark holding up a
tree that is still alive and standing). Does anyone know anything more
about the branching patterns of sugar maples?

Here are some pictures of them I’ve collected over the years.

#1 - looking up the hill at the 2 maples in early fall (2Maples2e-h.jpg)

#2 - looking from the younger towards the older (TwoMaples1e.jpg)

#3 - older maple’s trunk (Maple-Aug-evening1e.jpg)

#4 - older maple’s branches (Maple1e-h.jpg )

#5 - older maple’s branches (Maple1e-v.jpg)

#6 - older maple’s main branch (Maple-old3-e.jpg)

#7 - younger maple (Maple2-north1-e-v.jpg)

#8 - younger maple’s branches (Maple2-branches-e-v.jpg)

#9 - younger maple’s branches (Maple2-branches1-e-h.jpg)

2Maples2e-h.jpg
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