The Sugar Maple Acer Saccharum
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The Sugar Maple Acer Saccharum Cris Soliman & Hanna Barnes OEB59-- Plants and Human Affairs Botanical information The sugar maple is one of 148 maple species found in North America, of which 90 are native. The sugar maple is notable for the following 1 characteristics : ● Mature trees range in height from 70-90 feet, with an average diameter of 2-3 feet. ● Leaves are simple and single, with five lobes. The boundaries between the lobes are smooth and shallow (1a), helping to distinguish it from the red maple. ● Leaves and buds are in an opposite arrangement (1d). ● Terminal buds are typically larger than lateral buds (1d). ● Twigs are covered in lenticels-- small openings in the bark. ● Mature bark appears to have ‘plates’ that peel along the long edge. ● Monoecious-- female and male flowers on the same plant (1b, c). ● Fruit is a double samara (1e), meaning it has a characteristic winged shape. ● Massive quantities of fruits are produced cyclically, usually every two to five years, after the tree matures at age thirty. ● Small pores that are uniformly spaced (diffuse-porous). Distribution: ● From Nova Scotia and Quebec in the northeast, west to Minnesota and south to Tennessee. 1. Luzadis, V.A. & Gossett, E.R. (1996). Sugar Maple. In J.P. Lassoie, V.A. Luzadis, and D.W. Grover (Eds.), Forest Trees of the Northeast (157-166). Ithaca, NY: Cornell Cooperative Extension. What is sugar maple sap?3 ● The maple sap is the vehicle which transports nutrients Sugar Maple Products through the xylem. ● Sap is a solution of sugar-- mostly sucrose-- in water. ○ Wood products Water content is lowest when the tree is in leaf, ● Sugar maple (known in the wood industry as Hard Maple) during the growing season, due to is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained. These properties, evapotranspiration. ○ combined, make it resistant to abrasion and indentation, In the spring, stored sucrose is needed to support and yield a material that is ideal for: bud growth, but water is not lost due to ○ Flooring evapotranspiration and so sugar and water content ○ Cutting boards is high. ● ○ Counter tops During the early spring, sap flow is significantly influenced ○ Musical instruments by the weather; cool nights and warm days produce the ○ Baseball bats highest flow-rates. ○ Specialty turned items ● Unlike other hardwoods, sugar maple is unique in that the sapwood is most frequently used, as opposed to the heartwood. Sap products2 ● Maple syrup (>90% of sap converted into syrup) ● Maple sugar (<10% of sap converted into sugar) ○ Maple sugar can then be converted into other products, such as maple butter and cream. 2. Whitney, G.G., & Upmeyer, M.M. 2004. Sweet trees, sour circumstances: the long search for sustainability in the North American maple products industry. Forest Ecology and Management, 200 (1-3): 313-333 3. Holman, M.B., & Egan, K.C. 1985. Processing maple sap with prehistoric techniques. Journal of Ethnobiology, 5(1):61-75. From Sap to Syrup Tapping Processing ● A hole is drilled into the sapwood at a slight upward angle, ● Sap is boiled to remove excess water and yield a approximately 2 inches deep. concentrated sugar solution-- syrup. ● A special spout--called a spile-- is inserted into the hole and ● Depending on the initial sugar:water ratio, anywhere from a collecting vessel, such as a bucket is suspended from it. 20-60 gallons of sap is needed to produce 1 gallon of syrup. ○ In larger sugaring operations, plastic tubing and ● At 66-67% sugar content, the sap officially becomes syrup. vacuum pumping replace traditional buckets and ○ Below 66%, souring can occur during storage. help to increase efficiency and sap yield. ○ Above 67%, crystals can form during storage. Collection Filtering ● Sap will flow when temperatures dip below freezing at night ● Once concentrated the syrup is filtered to remove small and rise above freezing throughout the day. crystals, known as “sugar sand” ● Sap-- as it contains sugar and water-- is an ideal medium for Grading bacterial growth. ● Syrup is graded according to color and flavor; in 2014 new ● To insure higher quality syrup, processing should begin descriptive terminology was adopted in an attempt to soon after collection. standardize the industry. There are now four categories: ● Before beginning to process the sap, however, an initial ○ Golden color/delicate flavor filtration should take place to remove any small particulates ○ Amber color/rich flavor and other debris. ○ Dark color/robust flavor ○ Very dark color/strong flavor Davenport, A.L., & Staats L.J. (1998). Maple Syrup Production for the Beginner. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Cooperative Extension. Pure Vermont Maple Syrup: Sugarmakers in Action Interesting video that illustrates parts of the maple syrup production process in Vermont. Related photos can also be found in the following article: http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/maple- bubble#prettyPhoto Sample photos are shown below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KWsHMtr12U Maple Syrup Industry -- Origins Pre or post European contact? Important dates7 ● Some anthropologists have argued that Native Americans ● More recent work has uncovered archaeological evidence of could not have made maple sugar or syrup without metal maple sugar camps in Michigan that date back 10,000 years vessels brought to the New World with European settlers.5 ● 1557-- André Thévet, the royal cosmographer of France, ● They posit that boiling the sap would not have been commented on the sweet sap of the maple. possible unless it was placed in a metal container, which ● 1606-- Marc Lescarbot’s Historie de Nouvelle France (History of was not available to them before contact with European New France) described Native Americans making use of sap explorers.5 to distill a “sweet and very agreeable liquid.” ● 1685-- Report to the Royal Society in London described the ● However, Holman and Egan conducted a series of Native American practice of gathering sap: “after having experiments in 1985 proving otherwise.6 evaporated eight pounds of liquor, there remains one pound ○ Using materials that would have been available as sweet.” prior to European exploration, they proved that ● 1791-- Thoman Jefferson visits the new state of Vermont and syrup production was indeed possible. subsequently orders sugar maples to be planted at his home ○ They conclude that sap was held in a hollowed out in Virginia. log, to which piping hot stones were added. This would cause the sap to boil briefly and through Did you know?7 repeated addition of stones, it would be possible to ● 19th century abolitionists championed maple sugar, as evaporate enough of the water to make syrup. opposed to cane sugar, because it was produced without . slave labor. ● Anti-slavery sentiment, combined with the lower cost of 5. Mason, C.I. (1985). Prehistoric maple sugaring sites? Midatlantic Journal of Archaeology, 10(1):149-152. 6. Holman, M.B. & Egan, K.C. (1985). Processing maple sap with prehistoric techniques. Journal of Ethnobiology, maple sugar made it American’s preferred sweetener until 5(1):61-65. 7. Hopley, C. (2003). America’s sweeteners today. World & I, 18(3):124. the Civil War. Maple Syrup Industry -- Trends and Opportunities ● Maple syrup was once a large portion of the rural economy in both the United States and Canada. ● Production peaked in the 1800s in the US and declined steadily throughout the 20th century, as seen in the figure at right, though has experienced a rebirth of sorts in the 21st century. ● Canadian production spiked dramatically in the 1980s due to the adoption of more advanced production techniques such as vacuum pumping and reverse osmosis -- which reduces the amount of time needed to boil the sap and consequently the amount of fuel needed. ● Increased global demand has the potential to outpace supply. ● In order to meet the projected demands US producers will need to tap a greater proportion of available trees. ● Vermont, the largest maple syrup producer in the US, currently utilizes 2.94% of available sugar maple trees. ● Thoughtful expansion in other states as well as embracing new technologies will help to close the supply/demand gap. Farrell, M.L. & Chabot, B.F. (2012). Assessing the growth potential and economic impact of the U.S maple syrup industry. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(2): 11-27. Maple Syrup Production Declines Following Masting Several variables analyzed in syrup production include 1) sap flow (amount of syrup collected) and 2) sap sugar content. Sap must be processed to produce syrup. Weather and climate have been demonstrated as a significant mediators of the syrup production process in sugar maples, especially observed in diurnal freeze thaw cycles. ● The diurnal freeze thaw cycle involves freezing temperatures in the day and below freezing temperatures at night. ● When sugar maples are seasonally converting starches to sugar in xylem, a diurnal freeze thaw cycle causes sugars in this process to be incorporated in the tree sap and causes sap flow. This relationship is illustrated in the Tyree (1983) charts on the right. ● However, controlling for these variables did not explain variability in sugar maples’ sap sugar content observed over time. ● Sap sugar content determines the amount of syrup that can be produced using a given amount of sap and thus the sap yield’s profitability. ● Thus, Rapp & Crone (2015) posited that endogenous processes mediating carbohydrate content in sugar maples could account for sugar content variability, namely sugar maples’ mast seeding (masting) events. Tyree, M.T., 1983. Maple sap uptake, exudation, and pressure changes correlated with freezing exotherms and thawing endotherms. Plant Physiol. 73, 277–285. Rapp, & Crone. (2015). Maple syrup production declines following masting. Forest Ecology and Management, 335, 249-254. Maple Syrup Production Declines Following Masting ● Masting is perennial plants’ synchronous and intermittent production of large amounts of seed crops ● Sugar maples have been observed masting in intervals of 2- 5 years ● Isagi et al.