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Maple Trees...

Red Maple:
Acer rubrum L.
Other names: Swamp Maple, Soft Maple

Red maple has one of the largest ranges amongst the Maples. Its range covers most of Eastern North America. Due to its dense crown (denser than Sugar maple), it makes an excellent shade tree in ones yard or street.

Year round the Red Maple brings some colour to the landscape with its various red components. The twigs, buds, flowers, immature fruits, leaf stalks and autumn leaves are usually bright red. It has been reported by Donald Culross Peattie that even from the air we can see Red maple year round due to its colour and abundance.

Leaves:The leaves when they first emerge from the bud are red but quickly turn green as they grow. The hybrid Crimson Red maple is often mistaken for Red maple because of its colours when in actuality the Red Maple has green leaves in the late spring and summer and only then during the dehiscence process does it turn to its brilliant red. Only second in splendor to the Sugar maple. The leaves can be described as 5-15 cm long, about as wide; 3-5 lobes with sharp irregular teeth; central lobe with its 2 sides almost parallel to the mid vein, separated from lateral lobes by wide, shallow angular notches; upper surface light green, whitened beneath; bright red in autumn. Stalk 5-10 cm long.

Buds: One of the noticeable features of Red maple in winter is the colouring of its buds, almost a crimson red. Terminal bud 3 -4 mm long, blunt, almost twice as long as wide, shiny, reddish, smooth, usually with 4 pairs of scales. Flower buds stout, become larger during the winter.

Twigs: The twigs are noticeably shiny red to grayish-brown, hairless. Dwarf shoots occur on most branchlets, often bearing clusters of flower buds; flower buds also occur side by side at some leaf scars.

Flowers:Flowers are sometimes yellow but are more often brilliant red , with 5 very small; petals and sepals, in tassel clusters, on slender stalks. Pollen flowers usually on different branches of the same tree. Young trees may bear only one type of flower. Appear in late winter, long before the leaves; one of the first Maple species to flower in the spring.

Fruits:The fruits are encased in wings 12 - 25 mm long, angle between them about 60 degrees. Seed case swollen. The keys or samaras mature and are shed individually in early summer. Often children play with them as helicopter wings.

Vegetative Reproduction: Dormant buds at the base of most trees sprout vigorously if the tree is cut down or damaged.

Bark:Smooth, light gray when young; becoming dark grayish-brown, with scaly ridges fastened at the center and loose at the ends.

Size and Form:Medium sized trees, up to 25 m high, 60 cm in diameter, and 100 years old. In the forest, trunk usually branch -free for half its height, crown short, narrow. In the open trunk divides near the ground into a few ascending limbs that bear widely diverging and ascending branches; crown rather long, dense. Root system shallow, wide spreading.

Habitat:Often occurs in swamps and on other moist soils, but it thrives on a great variety of soils and sites. Moderately shade tolerant.

Quick Recognition: Leaves with 3 or 5 shallow lobes with parallel sides or tapered toward the tip, irregularly toothed. Wings small, angled between 45 and 60 degrees. (See Silver Maple for contrasting features).