Photo: Ayotte, Gilles, 1948- — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 3 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Spring sap tapped for syrup, sweeter than the birches but less sweet than sugar maple.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Sap
- Ripens
- Late winter (sap run)
- Mature size
- Large tree 18–27 m — not containerable
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Eastern North America — the greatest north-south range of any East Coast tree, from Newfoundland and Quebec south to Florida and west to eastern Texas; swamps, bottomland and dry uplands alike.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 10+ yrs (sap)
- Growth speed
- 45–75 cm/year — fast.
- Spacing
- 1000 cm (394 in) apart — about 100 m² (1076 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Opposite, 5–10 cm across, with three to five pointed lobes separated by sharp, narrow, angular sinuses and irregularly saw-toothed margins; pale beneath, and turning brilliant scarlet early in autumn.
- Root system
- Shallow and strongly horizontal, most roots within the top 25 cm of soil — notorious for lifting pavements and drives if planted too close.
- Fruit description
- Small paired samaras 1.5–2.5 cm long, usually bright red, ripening unusually early — in late spring rather than autumn. ⚠ As with sugar maple the useful crop is sap, but red maple yields only about half as much sugar, and the season ends early when it buds.
- Propagation
- Seed (the winged samara) needs 40–120 days moist cold stratification at 1–5°C; autumn sowing outdoors achieves this naturally. Named forms are grafted, since seedlings vary.
- Pollination
- ⚠ Polygamodioecious — most red maples are functionally single-sexed, carrying all-male or all-female flowers, though some trees bear both. So a lone tree often sets no seed at all, and 'self-fertile' is wrong for the species. Wind-pollinated, very early in spring. Irrelevant if you are tapping it: sap flow needs no pollination.
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Tolerates average soil fertility and rarely needs supplemental feeding beyond working compost or aged manure into the planting site; if growth lags, apply a balanced fertilizer as buds break in spring.
How it spreads. Does not sucker or spread vegetatively, but seeds prolifically via winged samaras, producing volunteer seedlings around mature trees that often need weeding out.
Growing tips. Prone to manganese chlorosis in alkaline soils and to verticillium wilt; keep mulch away from the trunk and avoid piling soil against the base, since girdling roots and trunk/root damage are common causes of crown dieback.
Grow journal
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