Newton Sentry Sugar Maple                A-ser sak-KAR-um

• Extremely upright, "columnar".  Most upright of all the maples.  Major branches have many short stubby branchlets.   Yellow-orange fall color.  Presents an austere winter silhouette.
• This tree was discovered near the entrance to Newton Cemetery in Newton, Massachusetts and introduced, as Columnare, into the nursery trade in about 1885 by F. L. Temple of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The tree's original location was at the Claflin Grammar School in Newton, but it was moved sometime between 1875 and 1880 to the Newton Cemetery.  Two years after the introduction of the Newton Cemetery tree, Mr. Temple introduced another upright maple which he called Monumentale.  Unfortunately, the names of the two trees quickly became confused in the horticultural literature.  A taxonomist for the city of Rochester, New York attempted to clarify the issue in an article in 1954 in which he proposed the names 'Newton Sentry' for the Newton Cemetery tree and 'Temple's Upright' for the later introduction.   However, the drawings of the two trees in the published article were incorrect and the confusion has been perpetuated by many authorities since.
       In 1983 Michael Dathe published an article entitled, "Acer saccharum 'Newton Sentry': setting the record straight", (Arnoldia 43(3):29-31) (see: http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1150.pdf).   This included a history of the confusion as well as the key identifying features of the two trees at maturity, namely:
    'Newton Sentry'
  • lack of a single central trunk above six feet from the ground
  • major and minor branches vertical
  • short, stubby lateral branchlets on secondary branches
    'Temple's Upright'
  • strong central leader well into the crown
  • major and minor branches gradually ascending
  • absence of short, stubby lateral branchlets
• Oregon State Univ. campus: north of Withycombe, next to service road.