BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Acer rubrum | Red Maple 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Red maple is a deciduous tree that grows 30 to 90 feet (9-28 m) tall and
up to 4 feet (1.6 m) in diameter [16,25].  The bark is smooth and gray
but darkens and becomes furrowed in narrow ridges with age [16,38].
Twigs are stout and shiny red to grayish brown [49].

The small, fragrant flowers are borne in slender-stalked, drooping,
axillary clusters [8,16,24,49].  The fruit is a paired, winged samara,
approximately 0.75 inch (1.9 cm) long [49].  Samaras are red, pink, or
yellow [38].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Undisturbed State:  Phanerophyte (mesophanerophyte)
   Burned or Clipped State:  Chamaephyte
   Burned or Clipped State:  Hemicryptophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Seed:  Red maple can bear seed as early as 4 years of age [78] and
produces good or better seed crops over most of its range in 1 out of 2
years [39].  Bumper seed crops do occur.  Trees are extremely prolific;
individual trees 2 to 8 inches (5-20 cm) in diameter commonly produce
12,000 to 91,000 seeds annually, and trees 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter
can produce nearly 1,000,000 seeds [1].  Seed is wind dispersed [97].

Seed banking:  In parts of Nova Scotia and Minnesota, red maple seed has
been found buried at depths of 0 to 6 inches (0-16 cm) [2,61,81], but
these seeds are usually not viable [2,61].  Up to 95 percent of viable
seed germinates with the first 10 days [1]; some seed survives within
the duff and germinates the following year [30,61].

Seedling establishment:  Seedbed requirements for red maple are minimal
[42], and a bank of persistent seedlings often accumulates beneath a
forest canopy [97].  Seedlings may number more than 11,000 per acre
(44,534/ha) [69] and can survive for 3 to 5 years under moderate shade
[73].

Vegetative regeneration:  Red maple sprouts vigorously from the stump,
root crown, or "root suckers" after fire or mechanical damage
[32,96,97].  Lees [62] observed that at least three generations of stump
sprouts can "thrive on the same regenerating root system."  Buds located
at the base of stems commonly sprout 2 to 6 weeks after the stem is cut
[97].  Mroz and others [77] reported that sprouting is generally
confined to the root collar.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Red maple grows throughout throughout much of the deciduous forest of
eastern North America and into the fringes of the boreal forest [49].
It occurs on a variety of wet to dry sites in dense woods and in
openings [25].  Red maple grows in low, rich woods, along the margins of
lakes, marshes, and swamps, in hammocks, wet thickets, and on
floodplains and stream terraces [13,17,24,79,82].  Red maple also occurs
in drier upland woodlands, low-elevation cove forests, dry sandy plains,
and on stable dunes [24,38,96].  Red maple is a common dominant in many
forest types and is cosidered a major species or associate in more that
56 cover types [97].  In much of the Northeast it grows as an overstory
dominant only in swamps and other wet sites [65].  Red maple grows in
association with more than 70 important tree species.

Soils:  Red maple does well on a wider range of soil types, textures,
moisture regimes, and pH than does any other forest species in North
America [97].  It develops best on moist, fertile, loamy soils [27] but
also grows on a variety of dry, rocky, upland soils [49].  Red maple
grows on soils derived from a variety of parent materials, including
granite, shales, slates, gneisses, schists, sandstone, limestone,
conlgomerates, and quartzites [97].  It also occurs on a variety of
lacustrine sediments, glacial till, and glacial outwash [53].

Elevation:  Red maple grows from sea level to 3,000 feet (0-900 m) in
elevation [97].  Elevational ranges by geographic location are as
follows:

Location                Elevation                       Authority

s Appalachians          up to 5,904 feet (1,800 m)      Duncan & Duncan 1988
White Mountains, NH     1,968 to 2,778 feet (600-850 m) Leak & Graber 1974



SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Red maple is characterized by a wide ecological amplitude and occupies a
wide range of successional stages [54,83].  It is moderately tolerant of
shade in the North but intolerant of shade in the Piedmont [97].  Red
maple commonly grows as a subclimax or mid-seral species [20,97], but
characteristics such as vigorous sprouting, prolific seeding, and
ability to compete enable it to pioneer on a variety of disturbed sites
[54,97].  This tree lives longer than most seral species [97] but
generally does not persist in late successional stages [65].  In
even-aged stands which develop after clearcutting, red maple is commonly
overtopped by faster growing species such as northern red oak [65].  In
a few locations in the Southeast, it grows as a climax dominant in
wet-site communities [76].

Red maple commonly increases after disturbances such as windthrow,
clearcutting, or fire [97].  In many locations, red maple has increased
in importance since presettlement times.  Dutch elm disease and chestnut
blight have led to increases in the number of red maple stems in many
stands [97].  In many parts of the East, red maple has increased in gaps
resulting from oak decline and gypsy moth infestations [43,65].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Red maple is one of the first trees to flower in early spring [97].
Specific flowering dates are largely dependent on weather conditions,
and latitude and elevation [8,97].  Flowers generally appear several
weeks before vegetative buds.  Bud break may be affected by soil
factors, and is typically delayed for 7 to 10 days on copper-, lead-,
and zinc-mineralized sites [9].  Fruit matures in spring before leaf
development is complete [39,97].

Generalized fruiting and flowering dates by geographic location are as
follows:

Location             Flowering           Fruiting        Authority

Adirondack Mtns.       Apr                  June         Chapman &
                                                         Bessette 1990
Blue Ridge Mtns.      Feb-Mar               ----         Wofford 1989
FL Panhandle          Jan-Apr               ----         Clewell 1985
Gulf & Atlantic 
      Coasts          Jan-May               ----         Duncan & Duncan
                                                          1987
MD                    Mar-Apr               ----         Batra 1985
MA                     ----          mid May-early June  Abbott 1974
MI               late Apr-early May         ----         Sakai 1990
NC, SC                Jan-Mar            Apr-July        Radford & others 1968
e TN                   ----          mid-May-early Apr   Farmer &
                                                         Cunningham 1981
TX                     Feb                  ----         Simpson 1988
Nova Scotia      late Apr-early May         ----         Roland & Smith 1969

Related categories for Species: Acer rubrum | Red Maple