Seedlings of sugar maple were grown in a greenhouse in ''full'' sun (500 to 1000 umol quanta m-2 s-1) and shade (50 to 200 umol m-2 s-1). A subset of sun and shade plants were taken for measurement of dry weight and biomass distribution. These data were analyzed for differences in the effect of shade on biomass and to provide baseline data for the effect of nitrogen treatments. 2 tabs.