Tag Archives: sap

The Sap Is Rising

“The sap is rising” is an often heard description of early spring. If you cut into the stem or branch of certain trees – sugar maple, birch, hickory, walnut, or sycamore – on a cool spring day, you may see sap dripping from the cut end, or an icicle of sap forming.  The sap is slightly […]

Bleeding sap in sugar maple

Sap flow in spring

Have you noticed any cut branches lately?  Freshly pruned or broken branches at this time of year often ‘bleed’ sap, and that sap may taste very sweet. Just before trees leaf out, they convert a large amount of starch to sugar.  The high concentration of sugar in the xylem sap causes a flow of water […]