Red Maple

Filling the autumn sky with beautiful seasonal color, the red maple is a breathtaking addition to any Florida garden.

The red maple is a deciduous tree with a rounded crown, between 30 and 50 feet tall when mature. The bark is gray and smooth and becomes more furrowed and distinctive with time. The three-pointed leaves have the distinctive serrated maple shape and are bright green above, smooth and silvery below. Twigs and leaf stems are red or reddish brown.

In the late summer and fall, the red maple bursts into vibrant color as the leaves turn fiery red before dropping. The flowers are small and red, borne in clusters and followed by winged seeds in January and February. Blooming and fruiting usually occurs before new leaves unfurl.

The red maple is a North American native found in forests stretching from Southern Florida to Canada. In the wild, it’s often seen growing in sunny clearings, but it also tolerates shade from taller trees. Red maple is one of the few ornamental trees that does equally well in both damp and dry soils. The red maple is extremely hardy, grows across temperance zones, is frost resistant and easy to cultivate.

This showy tree has dozens of uses in the home landscape. It makes a striking specimen tree for frontages or front yards, a stunning background tree for formal landscaping and a useful shade tree for backyards or gardens. A tolerance for standing water makes the red maple particularly useful for planting around ponds, marshes or water features.