Nature & Outdoors
Sugar Maple, American Beech
Blue Ridge Explorers: Two Treasured Trees
By Tamara S. Randolph
Early explorers often earned naming rights for the places they “discovered” and documented. While we don’t know with certainty who originally named two of the highest peaks in the High Country—Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain—we do know that the once dominant trees growing on these mountains, sugar maple and American beech, contributed to their names.
As you set out on a leaf peeping adventure this season, get to know these two native deciduous broadleaf trees growing in our high elevation environments. While a journey through the resort communities of Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain will certainly offer a glimpse of these great beauties, you’ll find them flourishing on cool slopes in cove forests on many of our mountains.
Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
Trees have numerous characteristics that help us identify them, including the size and shape of the tree in general; the color, size and shape of the leaves; the color and texture of the bark; and the various traits of their buds, twigs, fruits and flowers.
In the case of maples, start with the leaf. Our area has a nice selection of native maples, including red, silver, striped, mountain, and, of course, sugar. The palmately-lobed leaves of these different species resemble one another… so what’s the best way to tell them apart? A glance at the logos for the Village of Sugar Mountain and Sugar Mountain Resort reveals a key differences: the sugar maple has smooth leaf margins. Most other maples have serrated or “toothed” margins.
As an environmental educator, I have the privilege of teaching kids about the flora and fauna of the Blue Ridge. When I ask a child to identify a sugar maple, I remind them that this particular maple is missing its “teeth.” And to help them remember, I use a fun metaphor that I learned along the way: “It’s missing its teeth because of all that SUGAR.”
Reaching heights of 50 to 120 feet, sugar maples have a dense, spreading crown. As you take notice of the colors adorning our hills, you’ll be captivated by the combination of red, orange and yellow hues that make sugar maple leaves so striking. What’s more amazing is that each leaf is like an individual chemistry lab that synthesizes sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to produce food for the tree. Chemicals involved in the process (photosynthesis) include chlorophyll, but also orange and yellow antioxidant chemicals called carotenes and xanthophylls. Until autumn comes around, those orange and yellow hues are masked by the green pigment chlorophyll, but as food production slows in late summer, chlorophyll starts breaking down and the oranges and yellows become dominant.
Another chemical, anthocyanin, is also produced by some trees come autumn—anthocyanin adds visible red hues to leaves, including the sugar maple’s. All this color chemistry is made possible by our fall climate—frosty nights, and warmish, sunny days. In fact, the reds we see in sugar maples here in the High Country would be much duller in the more temperate regions in which they grow.
Sugar maples are valuable, both for their wood and their prized sap. It is the only tree commercially used today for syrup production. Yet making syrup is no simple task, as it can take 35-40 liters of sap to make just one liter of syrup, and a single tree may produce only 5-60 liters of sap per year.
American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
While the American beech grows beyond our mountain region, it tends to do best in moist mountain coves. You’ll find it growing alongside oaks and hickories, as well as sugar maple, yellow birch and other hardwoods. Known for its light gray bark that remains smooth even as it ages, beech trees can reach heights of 60-80 feet. They are also prolific in their production of beech nuts, a prized food source that supports many species of wildlife.
Perhaps the best way to identify American beech is by its leaves, in combination with its smooth bark. The leaves are fairly large, up to six inches long, with small teeth along the leaf margins that curve slightly inward. These teeth are spread out, with a smooth “dip” between each tooth. In the autumn, look for beech leaves to turn bright yellow as they begin to express their xanthophylls. From their yellow stage, the leaves transition to a tan color, and beeches will hold on to many of those tan, crinkly leaves through the winter months.
Beech trees have made the news recently as they battle for their lives—a number of threats are impacting their populations, from Canada to the High Country of NC and Tennessee. The most serious affliction is “Beech Bark Disease” (BBD), which results from a combination of a hungry, non-native scale insect that was introduced to the east coast in 1890, and a fungal pathogen. The beech scale feed on the trees and create cracks in the bark, which in turn allows a destructive fungus, Neonectria spp., to enter. The fungus damages the inner bark tissue, and cankers form on the trees, which can eventually lead to their death.
Several treatments are being applied on Beech Mountain and elsewhere in an attempt to save as many of the trees as possible, where possible, and researchers continue to study select genes that provide greater resistance to BBD. With this research, the hope is that resistant beech trees can be bred and planted to replace trees in areas where they are dying off.
Why does it matter if a certain native species of tree begins to disappear from its natural range? As we have learned with the chestnut blight of the 20th century, entire forest ecosystems can be transformed when just one organism is introduced or removed. In the case of the American chestnut, the loss of this dominant tree species dramatically altered the structure and food webs of our east coast forests. A similar outcome is possible in areas where beech trees are dominant, yet dying. The ecological significance of a single tree species cannot be overstated.
Hug Your Mountain Trees
To know trees is to love them. They add so much to our world—from their scenic beauty, to their commercial value as timber, furniture and firewood, to their abilities to produce oxygen and sequester carbon, to their role as provider of basic needs for wildlife. This fall, learn to identify some of the most common trees in our region and add to your own enjoyment and understanding of these all important natural resources.
Have a tree, or stand of trees, on your property that you’re concerned about? Reach out to your local NC Extension agent for help. Find your county center at ces.ncsu.edu.
——
Love your soil? Leave the leaves.
“Civilization itself rests upon the Soil.” – Thomas Jefferson
Soil is something that most people don’t think about that often, but it is a critical component of our natural systems and a resource that humans can’t live without. Nearly everything we eat and drink relies on soil. A lot of what we wear relies on soil. Our homes are made from lumber, bricks and stones, all connected to the soil. And much of the water we need is filtered by soil.
Think of soil as Earth’s skin—it forms the thick outermost layer of Earth’s crust and is composed of a mix of ingredients: minerals, air, water and organic matter. This complex mix forms layers called soil horizons, and some of these horizons can take hundreds to thousands of years to form!
Earth’s Skin Needs Constant Care
Soil’s top horizon contains mostly organic matter, which includes both living organisms and the decaying remains of dead stuff. For soil to be its most fertile this top layer and the topsoil just below it need to be constantly replenished with nutrients.
When leaves, needles and twigs fall from trees, they gradually decompose on the ground and become humus, a compound rich in nutrients that also helps soil retain moisture. Consider this thin layer of leafy mulch as a supercharging, slow release fertilizer for the soil beneath it. Keep replenishing this layer of organic matter and your ground will always have what it needs. A good layer of humus also suppresses weeds, and provides habitat for wildlife and countless beneficial organisms, especially important during the winter.
For many people, the thought of having “leaf litter” on an otherwise pristine lawn is hard to imagine. If that’s the case, focus on keeping the margins of your wooded areas and your garden beds covered with leaves, or leaf mulch. Many leaf blowers now come with a leaf mulching option that lets you consolidate your dry leaves, suck them up, and chop them into smaller pieces. Some mowers do a nice job of chopping leaves, too. You can then return the leaf mulch mixture to your wooded areas and garden beds to nourish the soil below.
Leaves are produced in bulk every year, at no extra cost to you. Soil requires a steady supply of organic matter (and time) to deliver its best benefits. This fall, rethink what you do with those dead leaves and put them to work for your land—it’s the little things that can make a world of difference.
World Soil Day is December 5! Celebrate this natural resource by “feeding” it this fall. Learn more at soils.org.