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Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 11th, 2010, 6:11 pm
by Grant Bowie
Must be!
We noticed lots of ants clustered around the edge of a pool of sap from a cut Japanese Maple. The ants seemd to sidle up to the liquid and drink it. They seemed to behave a bit erratically so I thought they must be drunk or high>
Grant
Intoxicated ants.JPG
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 11th, 2010, 6:13 pm
by Glenda
I would have imagined all maples to have some sweetness, since maple syrup is sweet. Which particular maple does maple syrup come from?
Glenda
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 11th, 2010, 6:18 pm
by Grant Bowie
Glenda wrote:I would have imagined all maples to have some sweetness, since maple syrup is sweet. Which particular maple does maple syrup come from?
Glenda
Acer sacharrum I think. A north american maple. large leafed
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 11th, 2010, 9:37 pm
by Webos
Acer Saccharum's common name is the "Sugar Maple" and is the source of the famous Canadian product, maple syrup.
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 12th, 2010, 10:45 am
by Makkanan
The species "Saccharum" is the main syrup producer (and thus no coincidence that saccharin is the generic name for sugar substitute). There are three or four other species of maple which are tapped for sugaring. When we 'sugared' each early spring back in the home country we also used the Black and Red maples... each yields a slightly unique flavor, but it's usually how suddenly the spring comes which determines the quality and quantity the sap runs. By the way, the syrup produced in northern New England is equal to that produced in Canada....Just in case you get on a trivia show, the rough relationship between number of gallons of sap collected and gallons of syrup produced is roughly 200:1. Think of that at your next pancake breakfast. That also explains why the artificial syrups are so much cheaper the the pure syrups imported into Australia.
The sugar content of maple sap is roughly 2%, I would expect it to be a bit lower for a Japanese maple, but certainly sweet enough to attract ants.
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 12th, 2010, 12:32 pm
by Asus101
Grant Bowie wrote: They seemed to behave a bit erratically so I thought they must be drunk or high>
"My Queen, we where out to get the food, but then we got soooooooooo wasted, charles could see his hand man, it was so awesome."
Re: Are Japanese Maples Sweet?
Posted: August 12th, 2010, 1:55 pm
by lindsay farr
Urbane possums think they are extremely sweet. Particularly the swelling buds in spring.