Red Maple Trees
Tap it for sap or admire the crimson beauty of this adaptable tree
With half the sugar content of sugar maple sap, red maple is nevertheless used in some regions to make syrup because it is widespread and grows fast.
Red maple syrup requires more fuel to produce, since it takes more boiling to extract the smaller proportion of sugar. But sugar and black maple, the two species with highest sugar content, are more finicky about temperatures and will not grow in areas too cold or too warm, sticking to central portions of the Northeast. Red maple thrives in a variety of habitats, from forests to swamps. In some areas, red maple is used to supplement sugar maple in syrup production, and in others, red maple is better than no maple at all.
If your goal is merely to drink the sap, red maple is an acceptable alternative to sugar maple, producing sap that does not necessarily taste sweet but still has the vitality of a drink that comes directly from a living plant. When sugar maples are stressed by the cyclical attacks of insects such as the forest tent caterpillar, it may be preferable to tap red maples, less preferred by the caterpillars, and give the sugar maples a rest. (See How to Tap a Maple.)
As the weather warms, red maple buds will be among the first to swell, turning the mountainsides ruddy as they burst into flower. The deep red, opposite buds become bright and roundish as they expand and the overlapping scales separate, starting in February or March. Tiny, narrow red petals emerge from yellow centers, along with stamens that reach above the petals. The anthers, the little bulbs atop the stamens, start out deep red and turn yellow as the pollen develops. The entire flower is only about half an inch in diameter, but a close look will reveal exuberant and exquisite beauty, while a tree in full flower glows red from any distance.
As the flowers die back, the leaves emerge. They are typically smaller than the leaves of other maples and with more teeth. In contrast to the few blunt teeth of the sugar maple, red maple features smaller sawteeth around most of the leaf margin. The leaf has five lobes, the two upper lobes being quite small. The leaf stems are red, as are the new twigs and the young seeds, which occur in paired “keys” or seeds with winglike membranes attached that help to distribute the seeds on the wind when they fall. The autumn leaves are also spectacularly red.
The bark is smooth when young, often with a chalky texture that makes an odd sensation on the fingers. As the tree ages, the bark becomes scaly, with little plates that easily peel or brush off. Red maple has a life span of about 150 years, as compared to the sugar maple, which can live to be over 200 years old.
For more information on tree identification, see Identifying Features of Trees.
