These four species share several characteristics in common. Like all maples, the leaves, buds and twigs of all four are attached in pairs opposite each other along the branches. Identifying Characteristics of Sugar, Black, Red and Silver Maple. Young trees up to 4-8 inches with smooth gray bark. Older trees developing furrows and ultimately long, irregular, thick vertical plates that appear to peal from the trunk in a vertical direction.
Fruits mature in fall.
Similar to sugar maple but usually darker and more deeply grooved or furrowed. Similar to sugar maple with, perhaps, a slightly larger seed. Mature leaves have a whitish appearing underside. Young trees up to 4-8 inches with a smooth light gray bark, developing into gray or black ridges and ultimately narrow scaly plates. Fruit matures in spring.