Red maple

More names for this tree

Anishinaabemowin: Ininaatig

The Dakota and Anishinaabe were among the earliest people to name Minnesota’s plants and animals, as well as to understand them in relation to Minnesota’s climate and seasons. Those original names are still in use, and several are included on the Season Watch website. However, complete translations were not available.

Latin (or scientific name): Acer rubrum

The scientific community has a convention of assigning agreed-upon Latin names to every kind of organism. Using scientific names helps people communicate confidently about the same organism and organize lifeforms based on how closely related they are.

More common names: soft maple, swamp maple

Page contents

About the red maple

Visual guide to phenology

Graphs and historical data

More resources

Red maple (Acer rubrum) tree. Photo © Kara, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC) — Red maple in a landscaped setting with colored leaves.
November 7, 2020, Ramsey County, Minnesota
Photo © Kara, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC 4.0)
iNaturalist observation

About the red maple

The red maple is a deciduous tree that reaches forty to seventy feet at maturity.
From March to May, before the tree has leaves, red or magenta flowers open and are pollinated by wind and insects.
In Minesota, leaf buds generally break open in April and May.
The fruit is a winged nutlet called a samara that can be seen twirling to the ground in May and June.
Autumn leaves turn brilliant red, orange and yellow.

Visual guide to phenology

Watch for the appearance of leaves, flowers, and fruits. Take notice of when flowers open and fruits ripen.

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Note to observers

This page explains general clues to watch for when observing red maple phenology. However, this page does not instruct observers on how to identify this plant or collect data in a standardized way.

For help with identification, see Minnesota Wildflowers.
For guidance on collecting data, see Nature’s Notebook.

The tip of this red maple twig has about ten flower buds. The buds are red and round.

About seven small buds are at the tip of this red maple twig. Pale yellow filaments are visible where one of the buds is breaking open.

About twenty buds, located at the tip of a red maple twig, are opening. The flowers and buds are shades of bright red and pale yellow.

This red maple tree has small flowers that are at their peak. Tiny, pale yellow filaments spread out from the flowers, giving the tree a slightly fuzzy appearance.

Leaf buds are breaking open at the tip of this red maple twig. The elongated buds are pink near their bases and yellow-green near the tips.

These red maple branches no longer have fresh flowers. Instead, fruits are beginning to form on many small, bright red supporting stalks. A few yellow-green leaves are unfolding.

A red maple twig bears several fruits and leaves are unfolding. The fruits are symmetrically shaped and winged. They are green near their base and red at the tips.

In a sunlit forested scene, a twig of red maple has leaves unfolding. The new leaves have blended colors of red and green.

New leaves on a red maple tree have a blend of colors, including maroon-red and chartreuse-green.

A cluster of maybe fifty or more fruits hang from the tip of this red maple branch. They are green and symmetrically shaped.

Bright green leaves of the red maple tree are seen here. The tree is in a shady forest.

About five different red maple leaves are in this photo. They have autumn colors of gold and scarlet. The image also includes green leaves, but they are not maple leaves.

A woodland area with leafless red maple trees. The tree trunks contrast black against the white, snowy ground.

The tips of this red maple twig are red and bear small, round buds. There appears to be snow in the background.

Graphs and historical data

Note: The Orientation Center provides a map, as well as information on reading graphs; interpreting summary statistics, who collected the data and how; and how to download datasets for independent exploration.

More resources

Twig experiments, a resource by John Latimer and Sarah Mitchell

Red maple (Acer rubrum) in the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas

Red maple (Acer rubrum) in Nature's Notebook

Cold winter temperature can accelerate the timing of spring budbreak, synopsis of a journal publication by Claudia Nanninga, Chris R Buyarski, Andrew M Pretorius, Rebecca A Montgomery (2017) in Tree Physiology 37: 1727–1738.

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