Red maple : Acer rubrum


Kingdom : Plant
   Phylum : Magnoliophyta
          Class : Magnoliopsida 
               Order : Sapindales
                    Family : Aceraceae
                         Genus : Acer
                              Species : rubrum L.
Common name: Red maple

Description

Medium to large tree. Leaves usually 3-5 lobed, 1.5 dm long to 1.8 dm wide, glabrate above, glaucous and pubescent to green and glabrate beneath, serrate, base usually cordate, occasionally rounded, petioles as long as or a little longer than leaves.
Red maple in the winter, Photo by David Byres Plants are polygamous (may have separate male and female flowers on same tree or separate trees or flowers may be bisexual).

Flowers appear long before leaves.

Staminate and pistillate flowers in clusters, perianth usually red, 1-3 mm long.



Fruit winged, usually red, 1.5-3.5 cm long.
Habitat:

Low, rich woods, swamps, floodplains, river banks, wet woodlands.

Distribution:

Eastern Canada to Manitoba, south to Oklahoma, east Texas and Florida, throughout the eastern United States.

 Red maple new leaf, Photo by David Byres



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