Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | The red maple is a medium-sized tree generally 40 to 50 feet tall, but capable of reaching heights of 90 feet. Trunk diameter ranges between 1 and 2 feet. It is known for its red flowers, leaf stalks, and autumn foliage. Grown in the open, the red maple possesses a dense, narrow, oblong crown branching near the ground. In the forest, the tree is free of branches for 30 feet or more and produces a narrow, short, round crown. |
| Leaves: | Leaves are simple, opposite, and deciduous. Each leaf has three pointed lobes with shallow sinuses between them. The leaf margins are coarsely and irregularly serrate. Leaves are light green above, while paler and glabrous below and turn brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows in the fall. Leaf petioles are red or reddish-green, 2 - 4 inches in length. |
| Twigs: | The twigs are slender, shiny, and reddish-brown. The pith is white and homogeneous. |
| Bark: | The bark on the red maple tree is gray, thin and smooth in younger trees but becomes a little thicker with shallow fissures as the tree matures. |
| Flowers: | This tree can be either dioecious or monoecous. Flowers are red and in stalked clusters. |
| Fruit: | The fruit is a reddish-brown double samara, which occurs in clusters on slender stalks. Wings are thin and about ¾ of an inch in length. Small, red flowers appear before the fruit does. Both the flowers and the fruit usually are seen first in the spring before any other species flower or leaf-out. In Florida, this usually occurs in January and February. |
Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List:
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