Sweet Maple

Acer saccharum

Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family, Sapindaceae. It may also be called rock maple, sugar tree, sweet maple, or, particularly in reference to the wood, hard maple.

Sweetness

Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugar. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, and sugar alcohols. Some are sweet at very low concentrations, allowing their use as non-caloric sugar substitutes. Such non-sugar sweeteners include saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and stevia. Other compounds, such as miraculin, may alter perception of sweetness itself.

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae. There are approximately 132 species, most of which are native to East Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, Acer laurinum, extends to the Southern Hemisphere. The type species of the genus is the sycamore maple Acer pseudoplatanus, one of the most common maple species in Europe. Most maples have easily identifiable palmate leaves and all share distinctive winged fruits. The closest relative of the maples is the small east Asian genus Dipteronia, followed by the more widespread genus Aesculus. Maple syrup is made from the sap of some maple species. It is one of the most common genera of trees in Asia. Many maple species are grown in gardens where they are valued for their autumn colour and often decorative foliage, some also for their attractive flowers, fruit, or bark.

sweet

Adjective

1. Tasting of sugars.
2. Retaining a portion of sugar.

Interjection

1. Used as a positive response to good news or information.

maple

Noun

1. Any member of any species of genus Acer, characterized by (usually) palmate, five-lobed leaves and winged seeds, and often grown for syrup or wood
2. A small tree (Acer campestre), known as the common maple, field maple, or hedge maple, which has palmate leaves with five lobes and winged seeds, and is chiefly native to East Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America.

Adjective

1. Of the light-brown colour of the wood of a maple tree (etymology 1, noun sense 3).
2. Of the flavour of, or made with, maple syrup.