I know you can safely drink tree sap from trees such as maples, hickories, walnuts, butternuts, alder, elder and birch, when it first starts flowing, as Spring approaches. I know as it warms up, people no longer use those saps for syrup, because the flavor changes to not as good.

I had the thought that in an oh crap situation, where you couldn't find potable water, or even water you could filter, that you may be able to still drink the sap from trees, so you could survive, even if it tastes bad.

Does anyone know if you can drink safely drink sap from trees in other warm times of the year?

It seems like it would be easy to put a hole in a tree and get sap, whenever the sap is flowing.

Keith

I don’t think the sap flows enough in warm weather.

this seems to be it. the flow slows way down at the end of taping season. seems to get cloudy also. But I'm no expert and have not taped the last 2 years. so memory Is fuzzy

You might not get as much out of one small hole later in the year, but in a survival situation, hacking a large cut, should still give you a lot of fluid. Trees aspire an enormous amount of water in hot weather, hundreds of gallons a day in some cases. That's a great many times more than the little over 1 gallon a day that an adult man needs in hot weather. I am wondering if that later sap is safe to drink.

Keith