Tree named for its red parts – twigs, flowers and leaves in Fall. Medium size, oval shaped tree up to 70 feet. In the forest, the trunk is usually clear for some distance, in the open the trunk is shorter and the crown rounded. Earliest Native species to flower in Spring. Member of the Maple Family, also known as Swamp Maple, Scarlet Maple, White Water or Soft Maple. Wood is used for furniture, woodenware, boxes, wood pulp and distillation products. Sugar and syrup are sometimes made from the sap and provides brouse for white tail deer, and is used as food by rabbits, hares and beavers. Pioneers made ink by adding sulphate of iron to the tannin from the bark.
3 to 5 lobes with shallow sinuses (but vary), 2-4’ long. Red leafstalk, green above, white or hairy underleaf.
Smooth & light gray when young, turning darker and breaks up into long, fine scaly plates.
Red tone and lustrous. Buds are large, round. V shape leaf scars.
The fruit is a cluster of long samaras ½ – ¾” with divergent wings on thin stems in light brown to reddish tones.
This is a unisexual species – small flowers are clusters of red or occasionally yellow that bloom before leaves.