Red Maple
Acer rubrum · Sapindaceae · Deciduous · also called soft maple, swamp maple
The red maple is one of the most abundant trees in eastern North America and tolerates almost anything, from swamp to dry ridge. It earns its name several times a year — red buds, red flowers in early spring, red leaf stalks, and reliable red autumn colour.
Quick facts
- Arrangement
- opposite
- Leaf
- Three to five lobes with sharp V-shaped notches between them and clearly toothed edges. The leaf stalk is often red.
- Bark
- Smooth and silver-grey when young, breaking into shaggy plates and dark ridges on older trunks.
- Fruit
- Paired samaras, smaller than a sugar maple's and ripening in late spring rather than autumn.
- Height
- 40–70 ft
How to confirm it
- Opposite leaves with sharp V-shaped notches between the lobes.
- Toothed leaf edges, unlike the sugar maple's smooth ones.
- Red leaf stalks, buds and twigs.
- Seeds drop in late spring, not autumn.
What it is confused with
One observation settles each of these.
Look at the notches between lobes: sharp V and toothed edges means red maple; smooth U and untoothed means sugar maple.
Silver maple leaves are cut far more deeply, almost to the midrib, with a silvery-white underside.
Where it grows
Eastern North America, in wet and dry sites alike, and among the most commonly planted landscape trees.
Start here: opposite or alternate?
Look at where the leaves join the twig. Are they in matched pairs directly across from each other, or staggered one after another? The vast majority of trees are alternate, so finding an opposite tree removes almost everything else in one step.
In North America, opposite-leaved trees are remembered as MAD Cap Horse: Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Caprifoliaceae (viburnums and elders), and Horse chestnut. That is very nearly the whole list.
Check partway along a healthy twig rather than at the tip, where crowding can make alternate leaves look paired. And check more than one twig.