Enlighten me, wood ID

[JimBear]

This is in my sisters backyard, the seeds look similar to Silver Maple but nothing else says that. The wood is very dense also.
@CincyBurner

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Both the trunk and leaves say "sugar maple". The wood is definitely much harder/heavier than silver maple. Good firewood.

Excellent photos for ID, by the way.

Norway maple has a similar leaf, but a different bark.

 

[nrford]

Hard Maple for sure

 

[CincyBurner]

I'm going with sugar maple (Acer saccharum), or black maple (Acer nigrum) if your a splitter.

VT Dendro black maple​

Bark: Norway maple has very tight, even textured pattern. Sugar maple is more platey.
Seeds: Norway is more spread out, and more flattened; sugar is more fattened, smaller and more turned downward
Leaf: Norway has longer petiole and deeper sinuses with more even and pointy lobes, but big give-away is that Norway petiole will exude a white, milky sap when plucked off from twig.

Black maple with its cupped, more rounded, thicker and tougher leaf is more durable in the Midwest heat, and and is more prevalent in midwest. Sugar maple more consistent lobed leaf with deeper u-shaped sinus (Think 'U' for sugar).
The leaves in pic 1 are more characteristic of black than sugar. A stipule, a tiny, leafy appendage attached at the base of the petiole if noted is a dead give-away for black maple.

 

[JimBear]

Thanks for the replies fellas, I guess the limbs I took off will give me some nice BTU’s in a couple of years then, not a lot but it all adds up.

 

[kennyp2339]

That baby looks like it has some twist to it, gona be a tough one to split, expect lots of little shavings coming off of it.

 

[JimBear]

That baby looks like it has some twist to it, gona be a tough one to split, expect lots of little shavings coming off of it.

Yes it has some serious twist to it. I just have the limb wood from it, she is selling the house so I took some limbs off to tidy things up.

 

[Stinkpickle]

Looks like black maple.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Barnes and Wagner make this note on Acer nigrum (black maple) in Michigan Trees (1981):

"...There is a continuum of forms intergrading with sugar maple, from which many botanists do not consider black maple distinct. Hybridization with sugar maple is likely. Reported to produce more and a better grade of maple syrup than sugar maple...."

 

[Caw]

Yeah I don't really think that's a sugar maple. The leaves are not pronounced enough and have 3 big nodes vs 5. Good wood regardless!

I live in maple country and you learn to see the differences. Here's a little pic to see some of them:

 

[weatherguy]

Yeah I don't really think that's a sugar maple. The leaves are not pronounced enough and have 3 big nodes vs 5. Good wood regardless!

I live in maple country and you learn to see the differences. Here's a little pic to see some of them:

View attachment 278949

Bark look like sugar, what do you think it is?

 

[Caw]

Bark look like sugar, what do you think it is?

Whoops meant to say I think its black. Either way it's good wood...definitely maple!

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Yeah I don't really think that's a sugar maple. The leaves are not pronounced enough and have 3 big nodes vs 5. Good wood regardless!

I live in maple country and you learn to see the differences. Here's a little pic to see some of them:

View attachment 278949

Definitely not red maple.

 

[Caw]

Definitely not red maple.

Agreed. I think the leaves look more like black but it could be sugar. Both are excellent firewood.