Red Maple
The red maple is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern North America. Its flowers, petioles, twigs, and seeds are all different shades of red in every season. In spring, its small flowers are red, making way for red-tinged winged seeds called samaras. In summer, look for the red maple's red stems. In fall, red maples blaze forth in a fiery spectacle all over Central Park, and once their leaves drop in late winter, they take on a pinkish glow as flower buds tint their branches.
-
Leaves
2-4 inches long, opposite arrangement, three or five-lobed; color: medium green upper leaf, gray-green or “frosty" underside, red in fall -
Fruit
0.75 inch samaras -
Flower
Showy, red or orange, bloom in April - June -
Bark
Young bark smooth and ash-gray, almost silver; older branches and trunk covered with scaly gray-brown bark
