The Black Sugar Maple is a variety of the Sugar Maple that has three-lobed leaves rather than 5-lobed leaves. Sometimes it even has two stipules at the bottom of the petiole. Its native range is similar to the regular Sugar maple, but does not go quite as far east or north; the range being southeast Ontario, western New England, New York, central and western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, most of Iowa and Missouri, southeast Minnesota, and south & western Wisconsin. It grows about 1 foot/year and lives about 200 years. It can be tapped for maple syrup. It gets great fall color. A some cultivars have been selected from this tree that come from its more western populations that show more drought tolerance than eastern populations or most Sugar Maples. 'Greencolumn' is such a cultivar from Iowa. 'Green Mountain' is a hybrid of Black x Sugar maple with dark, leathery leaves more resistant to heat scorch and heat and drought. I consider the Sugar Maple and its Black variety as the best large Maple species in the world.

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