Red Maple
Acer rubrum L.
Also known as Swamp Maple or Soft Maple.
Mature Size: Up to 90 feet in height and 2½ feet in diameter.
Form: Medium sized tree with rounded crown in the open, narrow crown in the forest.
Habitat: Wide variety of sites, from dry ridges to swamps.
Leaves
Opposite, simple, 2 to 6 inches long, with 3 to 5 lobes and coarsely toothed edges, green above and whitish below; leaf stem often red; leaves turn brilliant scarlet, orange or yellow in fall.
Flowers
Attractive but small, usually bright red but occasionally yellow, in hanging clusters, appearing before leaves in spring.
Fruit
Paired, winged, reddish and V-shaped, ½ to ¾ inch long, on long drooping stems, ripening in late spring and early summer, spinning as they fall.
Bark
On young trunks, smooth and light gray; on older trunks, darker gray and separated by vertical ridges into large, plate-like scales.
Twigs
Reddish and shiny with small pores; buds usually blunt, green or reddish, with several loose scales; leaf scars V-shaped, with 3 bundle scars; side buds slightly stalked.
Values and Uses
The light cream colored wood, known commercially as soft maple, is heavy, close-grained and rather weak. It is used for furniture, turnery, woodenware and paper pulp. Red maple can be tapped for syrup-making, but the tapping season is shorter than for the hard maples. The fruit and buds are a primary food source for gray squirrels in late winter and early spring. Birds and mice eat the seeds, and deer browse the young sprouts. Red maple is a popular shade and ornamental tree, with brilliant fall color.
Did You Know?
Red maple tolerates the widest variety of soil conditions of any North American forest species. Red maple is not tolerant of fire; however, suppression of fire has led to a proliferation of red maple in the understory of many Virginia forests.
