Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Native Plants < Native Plant Database < Acer rubrum

Red Maple
Acer rubrum

Family: Aceraceae

Description:  Medium-sized tree having opposite palmate leaves, light green above and sometimes hairy below with serrate margins.  Stems and twigs reddish and lustrous with small lenticels.  Bright red flowers appear before leaves in March.  Fruits long with slightly divergent wings reddish brown in color.  Bark on young trees smooth and light gray, with age becomes darker and breaks up into long scaly plates.

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Planting and Care: Although very tolerant of soils, prefers slightly acid moist conditions in either sun or shade spaced at least 50-100 feet apart.  Fertilize in spring if planted in alkaline soils to ovoid leaf chlorosis and weakly growing trees.

Ornamental Value: Beautiful fall color and bright red flowers in March.

Landscape Usage: Shade tree

Native Habitat: One of the most widely distributed trees in Eastern North America. Occurs in low wet areas, along streams, floodplains, in rich deciduous woods and on drier upland sites.  Frequently occurs on open, disturbed sites in almost pure strands.  Also found in deciduous swamp communities with Black ash, yellow birch, and Northern Red oak, Black oak, Aspen, and Elm.  Found in mesic upland communities of Southeast.

Wildlife Benefits:  Source of browse for some wildlife species, including White-tailed Deer, Moose, Elk, and Snowshoe Hare.  Seeds, buds, and flowers eaten by various wildlife.  Squirrels and chipmunks store seeds.  Maples provide cover for many species of wildlife.  The Screech Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, and Common Flicker utilize cavities to make nest.  In river floodplain communities, cavities are utilized by Wood Duck.  Young red maples, 3 to 6 feet high, are favorite nesting sites of the Prairie warbler.  Other birds that benefit from food and nesting are Chickadees, Purple finch, Goldfinch, N. Bobwhite, Grosbeak, and Vireos.  Browse is toxic to cattle and horses, particularly during the summer and late fall.  An early producer of pollen, make Red maple important to bees and insects.  Ceropia Moth, Luna Moth, and Polyphemus Moth utilize Acer sp. as a host plant.

Propagation:  Seeds germinate within first 10 days in early summer soon after dispersal and some seeds survive and germinate following year.  Given proper temperature and some moisture, seeds can germinate with very little light.  Prepare seedbed of moist mineral soil with a thin layer of hardwood leaf litter.  In dense canopy, germination may not occur until the second year.  Seedlings can survive for 3 to 5 years under moderate shade.  Easy to transplant as small specimen bare root, or burlapped in larger sizes, move in spring.  Cuttings difficult to propagate and success varies.  Cuttings taken from lower part of crown root of male clones collected in June seem to root better than those taken later in growing season.