Acer rubrum L.

Red Maple

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Red Maple is a small to medium sized native deciduous tree in the Maple family (Aceraceae). It occurs throughout Alabama. Red Maple occurs in a variety of habitats from hardwood floodplain forests to dry ridge tops and disturbed areas. It is a fast growing tree reaching heights of 60-90 feet. The bark on young trees is smooth and light gray. On older trunks, it is furrowed into long narrow ridges with peeling plates. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to obovate in outline, with toothed margins. The leaves may be pubescent below or glabrous and glaucous. The leaves are often three-lobed but can be un-lobed to 5 lobed. Leaves often turn bright yellow, orange, or red in the autumn before leaf drop. Flowers are produced in the early spring before the leaves. The flowers are imperfect and produced in short racemes or fascicles on younger stems. Male and female flowers are produced on separate trees or in different clusters on the same tree. The flowers have 5 small sepals and 5 small petals. The flowers are reddish in color and male flowers are most noticeable because of the anthers. The fruit is a samara. The samara varies in color from deep red, through pink, to greenish. Most people do not notice the small flowers produced at this time of the year, and instead believe that the samaras (winged fruit) are the “flowers”. Gray Squirrels often cut off small shoots in the spring to tap the sweet sap. Red Maple is readily available from nurseries, and several cultivars have been selected. It thrives in most soils but care should be taken not to girdle the trunk with lawn equipment.--A. Diamond

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Native G5T5 (Global Rank)

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