Florida Forest Trees

Red maple (Acer rubrum)

The red maple is also known as scarlet maple and swamp maple. It is easily recognized in the fall when the red leaves stand out along the forest edges along roads and along riverbanks. Of all species along the East Coast, the red maple has the most widespread distribution. The dramatic fall color of red can be seen from an airplane.

Pioneers used the tannin extracted from the tree to make dyes and ink. The dyes were used for linens, hats, and shoes. Sugar may also be drawn from the red maple in very small quantities unlike the sugar maple, which is well known for the production of maple syrup.

The wood of red maple is soft and may be used for smaller materials such as clothes hangers, clothespins, box veneer, interior finish, and some types of furniture.

The range of this member of the Aceraceae family is throughout the entire East Coast from extreme southeastern regions of Manitoba east to Newfoundland, south to southern Florida and west to eastern Texas. It occurs at altitudes up to 6,000'. Red maple is planted widely throughout the United States as a street and yard tree.		  

 Identifying Characteristics
Size/Form:
 The red maple is a large tree that reaches 60' to 90' in height. It is characterized as having a narrow or rounded crown with red flowers, leaf stalks, and autumn foliage.
Leaves:
 The deciduous leaves are oppositely arranged. Each leaf has three pointed lobes with shallow sinuses between them. Each leaf is a dull green above with whitish hairs below. Leaves turn brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows in the fall.
Fruit:
 The fruit is a red double samara. 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.
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.
Habitat:
 Red maple grows in wet or moist soils on river banks and in swamps along with other hardwoods such as cottonwoods, oaks, black ash, and black tupelo but may also be found in uplands and dry ridges.


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Fall color
Leaves


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