Mature Size: Up to 90 feet in height, 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,0.5 to 0.75 inch long, on long drooping stems; ripening in late spring and early summer; spinning as they fall
Bark: Young trunks are smooth and light gray; older trunks are darker gray and separated by vertical ridges into large, plate-like scales
Twigs: Reddish and shiny with small pores; buds are usually blunt, green or reddish, with several loose scales; leaf scars are V-shaped, with 3 bundle scars; side buds are 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 maples tolerate a wide variety of soil conditions of any North American forest species. Red maples are not tolerant of fire; however, suppression of fire has led to a proliferation of red maple in the understory of many Virginia forests.
