Red Maple

Acer rubrum

Red Maple  

Red maples rank highly among shade trees for landscapes due to their beautiful red flowers, which are among the first to appear in springtime, and their unmistakable brilliant red fall foliage. These trees grow rapidly, having the ability to flower at the early age of four years. Red maple sap is sweet and sugary, equally suitable for syrup production, though used less commonly than sugar and black maples due to the red maple having a shorter tapping season. Native Americans are known to have used the bark as a pain reliever, and tea made from the red maple’s inner bark can be used to treat both coughs and diarrhea. 

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Red Maple Acer rubrum L. var. rubrum  

COMMON NAMES red maple, soft maple  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves opposite, simple, palmately three- to five-lobed, sinuses shallow, margin irregularly and doubly serrate; fruit a bright red to brown double samara; bark plated and scaly on large trees.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are opposite, simple, deciduous, nearly round, and 6-19 cm (2.4-7.5 in) long, with three to five palmate lobes; apices are mostly acute; sinuses are acute to shallow; margin is irregularly and doubly serrate; underside is pale and glabrous; petiole is often red; autumn color is yellow, orange, or scarlet. Twigs are shiny and red-brown, with lenticels; leaf scar is crescent shaped with three bundle scars. The terminal bud is blunt and about 4 mm (0.2 in) long; scales are overlapping, red-brown, and mostly glabrous; flower buds are round and plump. Flowers are polygamous; staminate and pistillate flowers are in red or sometimes yellow clusters before the leaves. Fruit is a bright red to brown double samara; wings are about 2 cm (0.8 in) long and form a 70-degree angle; the fruit matures in the spring. Bark is highly variable, brown-gray to white, and smooth on small trees; on large trees the bark is dark gray to brown, loosely plated or scaly. The growth form is up to 30 m (100 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in diameter.  

HABITAT A variety of sites, such as dry ridges, rocky uplands, stream borders, cove forests, bottomlands, and swamps.  

NOTES Red maple is a species with broad ecological amplitude and is an associate of many tree species. The wood is white to gray-green, close-grained, and moderately hard. The foliage is a browse for white-tailed deer, and the seed is eaten by birds and small to midsize mammals. Honeybees favor the flowers. Red maple is a common ornamental tree because of its attractive flowers, brilliant fall color, rapid growth, and tolerance of a variety of sites. Many cultivars have been developed to enhance form and fall color.  

Acer is Latin for “maple tree” and refers to the hardness of the wood; rubrum means “red” and describes the color of the flowers, fruit, and autumn leaves.  

SIMILAR SPECIES Drummond maple (Acer rubrum L. var. drummondi [Hook. & Arn. ex Nutt.] Sarg.) is similar to red maple and is found in swamps and wetlands. It has leaves that are densely pubescent on the underside.