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Red Maple
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Medium sized tree reaching
15-21 meters high and 50-80 centimeters diameter. Shade-tolerant
and moderately long-lived. A preferred deer food, often reducing
regeneration in areas with high deer populations. Red maple is among the
first trees to flower in the spring.
BUDS: Opposite; clusters of broadly ovoid buds. Buds are blunt, reddish, and have many scales. TWIGS: Slender; bright to dark red; smooth and dotted with pale lenticils BARK: On young trees light and smooth; on older trees darker and shallowly fissured sometimes separating into long, narrow platelike scales. HABITAT: Occupies a broad
range of site conditions. Typically considered a wetland and swamp species.
Common in Virginia to Cape Cod - it has the greatest north-south distribution
of all Eastern tree species.
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