Acer rubrum

Perfect flowers are rare in red maple; individual trees may produce all male flowers, all female flowers, or both male flowers and female flowers on the same tree. Male flowers occur on the previous year’s twigs (before the leaves open) as dense clusters 3/4-1″ across composed of sessile flowers surrounded by bracts with hairy margins; each flower has five sepals and five petals (making up a red or sometimes yellow bell-shaped corolla), and 5-8 slender, projecting stamens two to three times longer than the sepals. The female flowers also occur on the previous year’s twigs before the leaves open as dense (3/4-1″ across) clusters of initially sessile flowers, but the pedicels of the flowers soon elongate (to 1/2-2″) and the flowers begin to droop; each flower has five sepals and five petals (making up a red or sometimes yellow bell-shaped corolla), and a two celled, hairless ovary with a pair of robust, arching red styles in the center. The flowers are wind pollinated. Fertilized flowers are soon transformed into a pair of red, winged samaras (i.e, maple seeds) joined tip to tip. At maturity, the samaras are each 3/4-1″ long.

Red maple is a native tree that produces a single trunk (up to three feet across) and reaches heights of 50-80 feet. The trunk bark of younger trees is light gray and relatively smooth; the trunk bark of older trees is gray, rough-textured, and irregularly scaly. Branches and older twigs have smooth, whitish gray bark; current-year twigs are reddish brown, hairless, and covered with white lenticels. Young, leafy shoots are green but otherwise similar to current-year twigs. The leaves are opposite, 2.5-5″ long and slightly smaller across, divided into three (sometimes five) sharply pointed lobes with the central (apical) lobe usually squarish with parallel sides. The leaves also have finely serrated margins or rounded teeth and are restricted to current-year twigs and shoots; the leaf petioles are slender, 2-3.5″ long, and green to red in color. Perfect flowers are rare in red maple; individual trees may produce all male flowers, all female flowers, or both male flowers and female flowers on the same tree. Male flowers occur on the previous year’s twigs (before the leaves open) as dense clusters 3/4-1″ across composed of sessile flowers surrounded by bracts with hairy margins; each flower has five sepals and five petals (making up a red or sometimes yellow bell-shaped corolla), and 5-8 slender, projecting stamens two to three times longer than the sepals. The female flowers also occur on the previous year’s twigs before the leaves open as dense (3/4-1″ across) clusters of initially sessile flowers, but the pedicels of the flowers soon elongate (to 1/2-2″) and the flowers begin to droop; each flower has five sepals and five petals (making up a red or sometimes yellow bell-shaped corolla), and a two celled, hairless ovary with a pair of robust, arching red styles in the center. The flowers are wind pollinated. Fertilized flowers are soon transformed into a pair of red, winged samaras (i.e, maple seeds) joined tip to tip. At maturity, the samaras are each 3/4-1″ long.