Hey, me again, had another tree fall and I'm pretty sure I know what this is but not having any leaves or buds this time of year makes it difficult for me! Thanks for any help you all can provide!
What geographic area is this? The cut end resembles Hard (Sugar) maple; the bark photos not so much.
I'd say red maple. Probably certainly a maple
Does look like red maple. The buds should be rounded and shoot tips red (last year's growth).
Sorry forgot to put my location, im in West Virginia! I was thinking a type of maple but was not 100% sure! Thanks again
Add your location to your profile and we will always know. Locations always help when answering questions.
Quote from: fnaguitarplayer on January 31, 2024, 07:55:54 AMSorry forgot to put my location, im in West Virginia! I was thinking a type of maple but was not 100% sure! Thanks again
West By God Virginia that is. Welcome aboard :thumbsup:
The fact that the tree is down by the creek is somewhat supportive to say soft maple.
I think I've gotten more curly off red maple than anything.
Danny W, who passed a couple of weeks ago was, among other traditional skills, a horse logger. When some lost southern pine beetles got into a remnant colony of red spruce up on Mt Rogers the forest service called Danny. It was a sensitive area frequented by hikers and some who didn't understand still gave him a hard time. He put the fire out, by hand. The lower grade logs came here to be processed for architectural use. The instrument quality went to a local luthier. I'm pretty sure some of that ended up in one of Clapton's guitars.
I remember thinning a small area of my land with a clearing saw. I was leaving sugar maples along the bank of a stream. Well the beavers never thanked me, and took them all. Greedy bunch. :D That patch was originally mature sugar maples. But most of my maples elsewhere are red with tiny patches of sugar on 3 or 4 areas, then sparse through the fir ground. A porky living in my warming shelter, the part with the fire wood is a separate lean to. He targeted a pole sized sugar maple and stripped every speck of bark off it this winter, from trunk to tip. :D
The biggest help for me in separating red and sugar maple from the bark is that sugar maple bark is very tight. Ridges will not easily come off by hand. Red maple can have very similar-looking bark, but the ridges (scales) can be removed rather easily.
Here's another pic, showing the buds on the end
Those buds and twig say sugar maple to me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_SugarMaple-twig.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_SugarMaple-bud.jpg)
Here's red
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_RedMaple-twig.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_RedMaple-buds.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_RedMaple-buds2.jpg)
Yes, to sugar maple.