Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Sapindaceae > Acer > Acer rubrum

Acer rubrum (red maple)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Acer rubrum (red maple, also known as swamp, water or soft maple) is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest service recognizes it as the most commonplace native tree in eastern North America. The red maple ranges from southeastern Manitoba around the Lake of the Woods on the border with Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, and southwest to eastern Texas. Many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. At maturity it often attains a height of around 15 m (50 ft). Its flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn.
View Wikipedia Record: Acer rubrum

Infraspecies

Acer rubrum var. carolinianum
Acer rubrum var. coccineum
Acer rubrum var. drummondii (Drummond's maple)
Acer rubrum var. rubrum
Acer rubrum var. tomentosum
Acer rubrum var. trilobum (red maple)

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Carbon Capture [1]  Medium-High
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Shade Percentage [1]  86 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  High
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium
Bloom Period [2]  Early Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  80 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Spring
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Hazards [2]  Slight Toxicity
Janka Hardness [4]  940 lbf (426 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [2]  30 inches (76 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  22720 / lb (50089 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Rounded
Specific Gravity [5]  0.54
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  The leaves are packed around apples, rootcrops etc to help preserve them; The boiled inner bark yields a purple colour; Mixed with lead sulphate this produces a black dye which can also be used as an ink; The dye is dark blue according to another report; The wood is used to make basket splints; This species can successfully establish itself in recently cleared areas and partially open woodlands; It can therefore be used as a pioneer species to speed the regeneration of woodland; Wood - not strong, close grained, hard, very heavy; It weighs 38lb per cubic foot; The grain of some old specimens is undulated, this gives beautiful effects of light and shade on polished surfaces; The wood is commonly used for making furniture, turnery, pulp, etc;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Red
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Red
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  98 feet (30 m)
Width [1]  50 feet (15.2 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 10 Low Temperature: 30 F° (-1.1 C°) → 40 F° (4.4 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  High
View Plants For A Future Record : Acer rubrum

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Emblem of

Rhode Island

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Apis mellifera (honey bee)[7]
Bombus fervidus (Golden northern bumble bee)[7]
Nymphalis antiopa (camberwell beauty)[7]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 9Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0