Silver maple lumber is similar in appearance to red maple, but cannot be used interchangeably. Silver maple is grouped into the soft maple lumber group by the sawmill industry. Growing in creek bottoms and wet areas, it is fast growing and less dense than sugar or red maple. Silver maple, Acer saccharinum, is a maple species that likes to keep its feet wet. Both hard and soft maple are important pulpwood species supplying our pulp and paper industry. Soft maple is a less expensive substitute for hard maple lumber and is also used for kitchen cabinets usually in painted applications. Soft maple has a diffuse porous cell structure like hard maple and looks very similar in appearance. Despite its name, soft maple is still relatively hard and dense, but less dense than sugar maple. In the sawmill industry, red maple is called soft maple. Red maple can also be used for maple syrup production, but its sap sugar content is less than sugar maple. Red maple, Acer rubrum, is the second most abundant tree species by volume in all of Wisconsin with 2.7 billion cubic feet of live trees. Hard maple has been popular for years for kitchen cabinets and in solid strip wood flooring, especially sports flooring applications. Hard maple has a diffuse porous cell structure, which means the cell diameters are relatively small, which produces a closed and subtle grain pattern. It is hard and dense, equal to red oak in density. From a production perspective, sugar maple is called hard maple in the hardwood lumber industry. It’s not the only maple that can be tapped for maple syrup production, but it does have the highest sap sugar content of our native maples. Sugar maple is popular in sugar bushes around the state. Our state tree and most abundant tree species by volume in all of Wisconsin, boasting 2.8 billion cubic feet in live trees. I’ve already mentioned sugar maple, Acer saccharum. Let’s look at Wisconsin’s maples and how they are used in our daily lives. We all know the sugar maple, our state tree, but the others are less well known. Wisconsin has seven native maple trees and many more non-native ornamental maples, with some of these considered invasive. In this month's installment of Field Notes Scott Bowe of Kemp Station discusses Wisconsin’s maples and how they are used in homes and schools.
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