Red maple

Creation is wonderful. We admire Nature s work first - from simple things such as the hoar frost that settled overnight on the red maples, to the most intricate creation, repeated thousands of times each day, a human infant brought to term and born [1],... 

Red maple, Acerrubrunr, leaf Ontario, Canada distance from smelter... 

Red maple, Acer rubrurrr, leaf various distances from nickel smelter... 

Weary, G.C. and H.G. Merriam. 1978. Litter decomposition in a red maple wood lot under natural conditions and under insecticide treatment. Ecology 59 180-184. 

FIGURE 11.24 Leaching (a) Standard pieces of different trees leach out different amounts of phenolics and other compounds. During 24 hours, red maple and witch hazel (left) stain water a darker brown than willow and quaking aspen (right), (b) and (c) Beavers leave pieces of branches in the water for 1-3 days with some or all bark intact before eating the bark. This presumably leaches out water-soluble plant secondary compounds. 

On most areas, new fast-growing stands of black cherry, red maple... 

Figure 5. Seasonal height growth of three deciduous species (39). Key O, white ash - red maple and , gray birch.

Red Maple 21 100-Sb Carvell 1968 Peevy 1972 Sterret 1969a Sterrett 1969b. 

Carvell, K. L. 1968. "Tordon effective in red maple tree injection studies." Down to Earth 24 17-18. 

Under the appropriate conditions, a sweet sap can be collected from most maple (Acer) species. In general, however, only the sap of sugar, black, and red maple is commonly used to make maple syrup. Where maple trees are found in abundance and weather conditions are appropriate, commercial maple production can occur. This ranges from Nova Scotia to Minnesota from east to west, and from southern Ontario and Quebec in the north to areas of West Virginia in the south (Heiligmann et ah, 2006). Boxelder is sometimes tapped in areas of Manitoba and the Pacific northwest. 

Cut ten twigs of four deciduous tree species, ranging from palatable such as aspen or willow, to least palatable such as red maple, black locust, or witch hazel. The actual species tested will vary from year to year, and with availability. Each twig is 60-cm long and has its leaves on. For one beaver site, collect ten such bows of each species. If you use more than one beaver site, you need multiple sets of ten twigs each. 

Keep bonghs of palatable species such as aspen or willow in a solution of a secondary plant metabolite for 2-3 days. Boughs will take up some of the solution. Use gallic acid, a phenohc. Gallic acid occurs abundantly in red maple and rednces feeding in tent caterpillars, for instance. To prepare saturated solution, dissolve 11.5 g gallic acid in 1 hter of water. 

This part deals with the possible effects of leaching out plant secondary compounds from usually less preferred food. Offer beavers sticks 30-cm long (1-cm diameter) of trees known to contain high levels of phenolics such as witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiand) or red maple (Acer rubrum). Half of the sticks are untreated, and the other half has been soaked in water for 2-3 days. As control, offer a preferred food such as untreated aspen. 

Basey JM, Jenkins SH, Miller GC (1990) Food selection by beavers in relation to inducible defenses of Populm tremuloides. Oikos 59 57-62 MiiUer-Schwarze D, Schulte BA, Sun L, MtiUer-Schwarze C, MtiUer-Schwarze A (1994) Red maple (Acer rubrum) inhibits feeding by beaver (Castor canadensis). J Chem Ecol 20 2021-2034 MiiUer-Schwarze D, Brashear H, Kinnel R, Hintz KA, Lioubomorov A, Skibo C (2001) Food processing by animals do beavers leach tree bark to improve palatabUity J Chem Ecol 27 1011-1026... 

---