Red Maple Acer rubrum L. - Red Maple Trees

Aceraceae -- Maple family

Russell S. Walters and Harry W. Yawney

Red maple (Acer rubrum) is also known as scarlet maple, swamp maple, soft maple, Carolina red maple, Drummond red maple, and water maple (33). Many foresters consider the tree inferior and undesirable because it is often poorly formed and defective, especially on poor sites. On good sites, however, it may grow fast with good form and quality for saw logs. Red maple is a subclimax species that can occupy overstory space but is usually replaced by other species. It is classed as shade tolerant and as a prolific sprouter. It has great ecological amplitude from sea level to about 900 m (3,000 ft) and grows over a wide range of microhabitat sites. It ranks high as a shade tree for landscapes.

Habitat

Native Range

Red maple is one of the most abundant and widespread trees in eastern North America (26). It grows from southern Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and southern Quebec to southern and southwestern Ontario, extreme southeastern Manitoba, and northern Minnesota; south to Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; and east to Florida (33). It has the greatest continuous range along the Atlantic Coast of any tree found in Florida-an extent of 2575 km (1,600 mi) (32). The species is native to all regions of the United States east of the 95th meridian, with three exceptions: Prairie Peninsula proper of the Midwest, the coastal prairie of southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas, and the swamp prairie of the Florida Everglades. The most notable exception is the Prairie Peninsula, where red maple is absent from the bottom land forests of the Corn Belt, though it grows abundantly in similar situations and species associations both to the north and south of the Peninsula (54).

Contact Information
USDA Forest Service
Northeastern Area
Office of the Director
11 Campus Blvd., Ste 200
Newtown Square, PA 19073

Phone (610) 557-4103
TDD (610) 557-4160