Most maple syrup is made from sugar maple sap. Sugar maple sap is preferred for making maple syrup because it has an average sugar content of two percent. Because sap from other maple species is usually lower in sugar content, approximately twice as much is needed to yield the same amount of finished syrup. If processed carefully, the resulting syrup from any of the maples described will have good flavor. During the active growing season, maples can be identified by their leaf shape.
Sugar maple grows in most regions of Minnesota except in the extreme western counties.
On better soils, it attains a height of sixty to 100 feet with trunk diameters in excess of three feet. The leaves are opposite, simple, three to five inches long, broad, and usually five-lobed. The lobes are sparingly wavy-toothed. They are thin, firm, opaque, dark green above, paler beneath, and turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red in autumn. The flowers are greenish and inconspicuous.