The Maple is a popular tree here in Canada where its leaf symbolically adorns flags, coats-of-arms, and pennies. Meanwhile the living tree itself adorns the earth we live on, having no respect for national borders, and is specially noted for the beauty of its colourful foliage in the autumn.

Rare is the person in these northeast woodlands who's never tasted Maple sap - be it in the concentrated form of real Maple syrup, plain fresh sap from the tree as a water substitute while the well is experiencing spring runoff, as a cooking or tea water, as a gourmet vinegar, or as an even more gourmet and rare wine. Few of all these Maple sap imbibers realize that amidst the flavour and sweetness are also good nourishing earth minerals, notably calcium and iron.

The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Algonquin Peoples dried the inner bark of the Sugar Maple by the fire, pounded it in their big wooden mortars, sifted it, and made bread or porridge from the resultant meal and flour.

The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) also gives its seeds to people for food. After the 'wings' are removed, the seeds can be boiled and eaten hot, sprouted and eaten fresh, or sprouted and then dried and stored.

In the spring of the year the young Sugar Maple leaves can be eaten fresh off the twig or added to salads.

The twigs are a staple food for cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, whitetail deer and moose. Porcupines often eat the inner bark and can destroy a fine stand of Maples by girdling the bark, especially the upper branches. I've seen red squirrels nip a branch in spring, drink the sap, and return every so often for more from the same hole.

Medicinally the leaves, seeds, and especially the bark have been used to strengthen the liver and spleen. An infusion can be made of 1 teaspoon of the dried Tree part to a cup of boiling water and 1 - 3 cups a day drunk on an empty stomach, or as often as every one to two hours when pain is experienced.

Similarly, the infusion is used as a nerve soother and tonic for the whole body. New mothers have drunk this tea as a muscle toner after birthing.

Externally the tea is used as a wash for sore eyes. The astringent quality of the leaves and tea have been recognized in their use as a poultice for boils.

Sugar Maple is one of the finest woods for furniture, building, and fuel.

The Red Maple (Acer rubrum) is similar to the Sugar Maple in use, as its inner bark is made into flour, its buds eaten and its inner bark boiled to make an eye wash, a tonic tea, and a wash for strengthening mucous membranes.

However, Red Maple leaves have caused death of cattle and horses in West Virginia, so I wouldn't add them to a salad, nor make a tea from them. Perhaps it is something in the redness. Red Maple is also called Soft Maple because its wood is considerably softer than Sugar Maple. Therefore its value for furniture, building and fuel is relatively less.

Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum) has different qualities and uses from its larger and more populous cousins. As an internal medicine, it has been used as a uterine sedative in cases of threatened abortion and as a miscarriage preventive. It's taken as a tea for the four to five weeks before the projected date. It has proven itself as a suitable substitute for cramp bark (Viburnum opulus). Mountain Maple tea has also been drunk as a remedy for diarrhea and intestinal illness.

As an external medicine, the pith of the twigs of the Mountain Maple has two uses for the eyes. Small particles can be pinched off the pith and placed directly in the eye where they will become sticky and adhere to any foreign matter which can then be removed with the pith. The pith can also be soaked in water to make a lotion for treating sore eyes.

Striped Maple (Acer pennsylvanicum -Maced.) bark is brewed for a poultice for swollen limbs, kidney troubles, and spitting of blood.

Striped Maple gets its name from the long white, vertical stripes that mark its thin greenish-brown smooth bark. It probably gets the name 'Moosewood' from the moose who eat its leaves in summer, and its twigs and branches in winter. The twigs and branches are also an important winter food for deer. Birds feed on the buds in winter.