Maple trees are famous for their beautiful leaves that turn bright red, orange, and yellow in the fall, making forests look like they are on fire with color! Their leaves have a special shape with pointy parts that many people recognize right away. In fact, the maple leaf is so well loved that it is on the flag of Canada! There are about 128 different kinds of maple trees in the world, and some can live for more than 200 years. Maple trees also grow seeds with little wings that spin around like tiny helicopters when they fall from the tree.
Did you know that maple syrup comes from maple trees? In late winter and early spring, people drill a small hole in the trunk and collect a sweet liquid called sap that drips out. But here is the really amazing part: it takes about 40 bottles of sap to make just one bottle of maple syrup because the sap has to be boiled down for a long time! Most of the maple syrup in the world comes from Canada. A maple tree has to grow for about 30 to 40 years before it is big enough to share its sap, and some trees have been giving sap for over 150 years!