Forty Litres of Sap Make One Litre of Syrup
A maple is a tree with distinctive lobed leaves. Its sap is boiled down to make syrup at a ratio of about forty to one.
A maple is a tree with lobed leaves and winged seeds that spin as they fall. Maple syrup is an exercise in patience: sap is only about two per cent sugar, so roughly forty litres must be boiled down to produce one litre of syrup. A single tree yields perhaps forty litres of sap in a season, so a tree makes about one litre of syrup a year. The spinning seeds are *samaras*, and their autogyro descent carries them away from the parent tree.
- A broadleaf tree. *A sugar maple.*
- Maple syrup. *Pancakes with maple syrup.*
- Samara — the winged seed. *Maple samaras.*
- Sugar maple — the syrup species. *Acer saccharum.*
- Sycamore — a maple, despite the name. *A sycamore.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | maple | A tall maple. |
| Plural | maples | Two maples. |
| Compound | maple syrup | Maple syrup. |
| Genus | Acer | Acer saccharum. |
| Old English | mapul | Maple. |
- The maples turn red in October.Autumn.
- Forty litres of sap make one of syrup.Production.
- The seeds spin as they fall.Samaras.
How maple syrup is made
- Tapping happens in late winter, when nights freeze and days thaw
- Sap flows because that temperature swing changes pressure in the trunk
- Sap is about two per cent sugar; syrup is about 66 per cent
- Around forty litres of sap make one litre of syrup
- Tapping does not harm a healthy mature tree
Old English *mapul*, from a Germanic root of uncertain earlier origin.
How much sap makes a litre of syrup?
About forty litres, because the sap is only around two per cent sugar and syrup is around sixty-six.
Is a sycamore a maple?
In Britain, yes: the sycamore is a maple species. In North America, sycamore names an unrelated plane tree.