The keys of the white maple
are more than half an inch long,
not including stem;
a dull-purplish cottony white.
They make no such show as the red.
The keys of the red
are longer-stemmed
but as yet much smaller.
May 7, 1853
As I sat in my boat near the Bath Rock at Island,
I saw a red squirrel steal slyly up a red maple,
as if he were in search of a bird’s nest (though it is early for most),
and I thought I would see what he was at.
He crept far out on the slender branches and, reaching out his neck,
nibbled off the fruit-stems, sometimes bending them within reach with his paw;
and then, squatting on the twig, he voraciously devoured the half-grown keys,
using his paws to direct them to his mouth, as a nut.
Bunch after bunch he plucked and ate, letting many fall,
and he made an abundant if not sumptuous feast,
the whole tree hanging red with fruit around him.
It seemed like a fairy fruit as I sat looking toward the sun
and saw the red keys made all glowing and transparent by the sun
between me and the body of the squirrel.
It was certainly a cheering sight,
a cunning red squirrel
perched on a slender twig
between you and the sun,
feasting on the handsome red maple keys.
He nibbled voraciously,
as if they were a sweet and luscious fruit to him.
What an abundance and variety of food is now ready for him!
May 13, 1858
White or Sugar Maple Keys
The white maple keys
fall and float down the stream like
wings of great insects
May 6. Maple keys an inch and a half long. May 6, 1860
May 7. The keys of the white maple are more than half an inch long, not including stem; a dull-purplish cottony white. They make no such show as the red. May 7, 1853
May 17. The large green keys of the white maples are now conspicuous, looking like the wings of insects. May 17, 1854
May 21. The white maple keys are nearly two inches long by a half-inch wide, in pairs, with waved inner edges like green moths ready to bear off their seeds. May 21, 1853
May 29. P. M. — To Cedar Swamp by Assabet. The white maple keys have begun to fall and float down the stream like the wings of great insects. May 29, 1854
June 2. From that cocoon of the Attacus cecropia which I found. . . came out this forenoon a splendid moth. June 2, 1855
June 6. The white maple keys are about half fallen. It is remarkable that this happens at the time the emperor moth (cecropia) comes out. June 6, 1855
June 10. By the 30th of May, at least, white maple keys were falling. How early, then, they had matured their seed! June 10, 1853
Red Maple Keys
May 6. The [red] maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys, at a distance, — crescents of red. May 6, 1853
May 7. The keys of the red are longer-stemmed but as yet much smaller [than the white].May 7, 1853
May 10. A sprinkling rain ceases when I reach Bittern Cliff, and the water smooths somewhat. I see many red maple blossoms on the surface. Their keys now droop gracefully about the stems. May 10, 1854
May 10. Young red maples are generally later to leaf than young sugar maples; hardly began before yesterday; and large white are not so forward as young sugar. May 10, 1855
May 13. Bunch after bunch he plucked and ate, letting many fall, and he made an abundant if not sumptuous feast,. . . a cunning red squirrel perched on a slender twig between you and the sun, feasting on the handsome red maple keys. May 13, 1858
May 14. The maple-keys are already formed, though the male blossoms (on different trees) are not withered. May 14, 1852
May 14. The prospect from these rocks is early-June-like. You notice the tender light green of the birches, both white and paper, and the brown-red tops of the maples where their keys are. May 14, 1853
May 15. In swamps, the reddish or reddish-brown crescents of the red maple tops, now covered with keys. May 15, 1854
May 16. I pass a young red maple whose keys hang down three inches or more and appear to be nearly ripe. This, being in a favorable light (on one side from the sun) and being of a high color, — a pink scarlet, — is a very beautiful object, more so than when in flower. Masses of double samaræ unequally disposed along the branches, trembling in the wind. Like the flower of the shad-bush, so this handsome fruit is seen for the most part now against bare twigs, it is so much in advance of its own and of other leaves. The peduncles gracefully rise a little before they curve downward. They are only a little darker shade than the samaræ. There are sometimes three samaræ together. May 16, 1860
May 17. The red maple tops ten days ago looked like red paint scaling off, when seen against houses. Now they have acquired a browner red. May 17, 1858
May 17. Red maple keys are seen at a distance against the tender green of birches and other trees. May 17, 1854
May 25. The female red maples bearing keys are later to put forth leaves. May 25, 1852
June 2. Red maple seed is partly blown off. Some of it is conspicuously whitish or light-colored on the trees. June 2, 1859
June 5. Some red maples are much more fertile than others. Their keys are now very conspicuous. But such trees have comparatively few leaves and have grown but little as yet. June 5, 1857
June 7. Red maple seed is still in the midst of its fall; is blown far from the trees. June 7, 1860
July 11.. The shore is strewn with quite a long grove of young red maples two inches high, with the samaræ attached. So they are dispersed. July 11, 1852August 1. Looking carefully through a dense maple swamp, I find little maples, a couple of inches high, which have sprung up chiefly on certain spots alone. . . Each little tree is already deeply rooted, while the now useless winged seed lies empty nearby. Two months ago the maple swamp was red with maple seed falling in showers around, but now only a very small number of maple seeds are to be found. Indeed, almost every seed that falls to the earth is picked up by some animal or other whose favorite and perhaps peculiar food it is. August 1, 1860
See also
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, White Maple Buds and Flowers
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Maple Keys
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2022
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