When do red maplesturn?

• New England ahead: 11% vs 6% (62 obs.)
• The Southern Appalachians about typical: 0% vs 1% (46 obs.)
• The Mid-Atlantic about typical: 6% vs 5% (106 obs.)

Sources: US Forest Service, Fall Colors ↗ (opens in a new tab), US Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: red maple ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Sources: USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Little's range maps ↗ (opens in a new tab), US Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: red maple ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Size

Usually 30 to 90 feet tall, with a trunk up to 4 feet across.

Lifespan

Outlives most of the quick trees that move into open, disturbed ground, but usually drops out as a forest grows old. It can bear seed as young as 4.

Bark and fruit

Smooth and gray at first, darkening and breaking into narrow furrowed ridges with age; twigs stout and shiny, red to grayish brown.

Where it grows best

At home on wet and dry ground alike: swamp, marsh and lake edges, floodplains and stream terraces, but also dry upland woods, sandy plains and stable dunes. It copes with a wider range of soils than any other forest tree in North America and does best on moist, fertile loam. Mostly from sea level to about 3,000 feet, up to about 5,900 feet in the southern Appalachians.

Shade

Fairly shade tolerant in the North, but not in the Piedmont. It sprouts vigorously and seeds heavily, so it quickly takes over land opened by windthrow, logging or fire.

In spring

One of the first trees to flower in early spring, several weeks before its leaf buds open; the seeds ripen in spring before the leaves are fully out.

Wildlife

White-tailed deer, moose, elk and snowshoe hares browse it, and it is especially valuable deer food in late fall and winter; deer go looking for its stump sprouts. Screech owls, pileated woodpeckers and flickers nest in maple cavities, and holes in floodplain red maples suit wood ducks.

People and uses

Its sap can be boiled into maple syrup, though sugar maple is tapped far more often. Grown in gardens since 1656 for its showy flowers and seeds and its fall color.

Source: US Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: red maple ↗ (opens in a new tab)

• Katahdin Woods and Waters · MaineSep 1–Oct 15
• Voyageurs · MinnesotaSep 11–20
• Chippewa National Forest · MinnesotaUsually Sep 17–30
• Hiawatha National Forest · MichiganSep 21–30
• Mississippi River, Minneapolis–St. Paul · MinnesotaUsually Sep 24–Oct 7
• Pictured Rocks · MichiganUsually Sep 24–Oct 10
• Aroostook Refuge · MaineUsually Oct 1–10
• Blue Ridge Parkway · North CarolinaUsually Oct 1–31
• Great Smoky Mountains · TennesseeUsually Oct 1–Nov 10
• Au Sable River · MichiganOct 1–31
• Iroquois Refuge · New YorkOct 1–10
• Crawford Notch and Zealand Valley · New HampshireOct 4–10

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