Red Maple

More info for the term: series

Season of burn:  Late spring or early summer burns are most damaging to
understory hardwoods such as red maple [48].  A series of consecutive
annual late spring and early summer burns killed the rootstocks of
progressively more individuals; however, as many as five consecutive
annual winter burns had no effect on sprouting ability of top-killed
hardwoods [48].

Bark:  Bark of red maple is intermediate in resistance to fire [46].
Mean number of seconds required for the cambium to reach 140 degrees (60
deg C) (often considered a lethal temperature) are as follows [46]:

        Bark thickness          Seconds
        0.20 inch                20.0
        0.30 inch                56.8
        0.40 inch               117.6

More info for the terms: density, fire use, forest, hardwood, prescribed fire, tree

Red maple is reportedly common on burned lands in the Maritime Provinces
[82], boreal forests on northern Minnesota [12,51,96], and hardwood
forests of the Allegheny Mountains [50].  However, it is rarely observed
on burned sites in Rhode Island [14] and was reported to be greatly
reduced by prescribed fire in northern Indiana woodlands [18].

On the George Washington National Forest, West Virginia, a spring prescribed
fire increased red maple density in a mixed-hardwood forest. Average red maple
seedling densities before fire and in postfire year 5 were 132 and 368
seedlings/acre, respectively; red maple sprout densities were 1,368
sprouts/acre before and 1,395 sprouts/acre 5 years after the fire. See the
Research Paper of Wendel and Smith's [103] study for details on the fire
prescription and fire effects on red maple and 6 other tree species.

The following Research Project Summaries
provide further information on prescribed

fire use and postfire response of plant
community species, including red

maple, that was not available when this
species review was originally

written:

• Early postfire effects of a prescribed fire in the southern Appalachians
  of North Carolina


• Early postfire response of southern Appalachian Table Mountain-pitch
  pine stands to prescribed fires in North Carolina and Virginia


• Effects of experimental burning on understory plants in a temperate
  
  deciduous forest in Ohio


• Effects of surface fires in a mixed red and eastern white pine stand
  
  in Michigan

red maple
scarlet maple

More info for the term: cover

Maples provide cover for many species of wildlife [78].  The screech
owl, pileated woodpecker, and common flicker nest in cavities in many
species of maple [44].  Cavities in red maples in river floodplain
communities are often well suited for cavity nesters such as the wood
duck [36].  Riparian red maple communities provide autumn roosts for
blackbirds in central Ohio [75].

More info for the terms: fruit, tree

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].

More info for the term: swamp

Red maple is one of the most widely distributed trees in eastern North
America [97].  Its range extends from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west
to southern Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois; south through
Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, and southern Texas; and east to southern
Florida [64].  It is conspicuously absent from the bottomland forests of
the Corn Belt in the Prairie Peninsula of the Midwest, the coastal
prairies of southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas, and the swamp
prairie of the Florida everglades [97].  It is cultivated in Hawaii [102].

More info for the terms: fire regime, fire suppression, forest, restoration, root crown

Red maple is a common fire type in the Acadian Forest of New Brunswick,
where mean fire intervals have been estimated at 370 years [32].  In the
New Jersey Pine Barrens, mean fire intervals averaged 20 years in the
early 1900's, but due to a variety of factors including fire suppression
and increased prescribed burning, now average 65 years [34].  Red maple
regeneration in the Pine Barrens is favored in the absence of fire [34].
In upland oak forests of central Pennsylvania fire suppression has led
to the replacement of oaks by red maple, beech, black cherry, and sugar
maple [71].

Red maple has also increased in the absence of fire throughout much of
the Southeast [11].  In parts of the Appalachians, fire suppression has
allowed maple stems to grow large enough and develop bark thick enough
to enable them to survive fires [47].  As a result, restoration to
presettlement conditions would be "a very long-term process" [47].

Red maple sprouts vigorously from the root crown after aboveground
vegetation is killed by fire [87].  Seedling establishment may also
occur [87].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

Protein content of red maple commonly increases on burned sites[22].
Low-intensity fires produced increases in protein levels during the
first postfire season, but no increases were noted the following season.
High-intensity fires produced significant increases in protein levels
during both the first and second seasons [22].  Dills [101] reported,
however, that burning had no effect on the nutritive content of red
maple browse.

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: chamaephyte, hemicryptophyte, phanerophyte

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

More info for the terms: association, cover, forest, tree

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 considered 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

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

More info for the terms: hardwood, swamp

     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    14  Northern pin oak
    16  Aspen
    17  Pin cherry
    18  Paper birch
    19  Gray birch - red maple
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    24  Hemlock - yellow birch
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    26  Sugar maple - basswood
    27  Sugar maple
    28  Black cherry - maple
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white-cedar
    38  Tamarack
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    43  Bear oak
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    46  Eastern redcedar
    52  White oak - black oak - northern red oak
    53  White oak
    55  Northern red oak
    57  Yellow-poplar
    59  Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
    61  River birch - sycamore
    62  Silver maple - American elm
    63  Cottonwood
    65  Pin oak - sweetgum
    73  Southern redcedar
    74  Cabbage palmetto
    75  Shortleaf pine
    76  Shortleaf pine - oak
    78  Virginia pine - oak
    79  Virginia pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    82  Loblolly pine - hardwood
    85  Slash pine - hardwood
    87  Sweetgum - yellow-poplar
    88  Willow oak - water oak - diamondleaf (laurel) oak
    92  Sweetgum - willow oak
    93  Sugarberry - American elm - green ash
    95  Black willow
    96  Overcup oak - water hickory
    97  Atlantic white-cedar
    98  Pond pine
   100  Pondcypress
   101  Baldcypress
   103  Water tupelo - swamp tupelo
   104  Sweetbay - swamp tupelo - redbay
   108  Red maple
   109  Hawthorne
   110  Black oak

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

   K081  Oak savanna
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce - fir forest
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K099  Maple - basswood forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K101  Elm - ash forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods (seral stages)
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest (seral stages)
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest (seral stages)
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K113  Southern floodplain forest

More info for the terms: fire severity, severity

Red maple is intolerant of fire; even large individuals can be killed by
moderate fires [97].  Postfire mortality is relatively high for
saplings, but because bark becomes thicker and more fire-resistant with
age, mortality is much lower for sawtimber [98].  The effects of fire
also vary with fire severity, season of burn, and various site factors.

Red maple is browsed by some wildlife species, including white-tailed
deer, moose, elk, and snowshoe hare [97].  It is a particularly valuable
white-tailed deer browse during the late fall and winter, and is
considered an important deer food in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine,
and Minnesota [31,51,60,70,94].  Although red maple is browsed by moose,
it is often only lightly used [19].  Irwin [51], however, reported that
red maple is an important fall and winter moose browse in parts of
northeastern Minnesota.

More info for the terms: association, codominant, forest, mesic, swamp

Red maple occurs as a dominant or codominant in several eastern
deciduous forests and deciduous swamp communities with black ash
(Fraxinus nigra), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), northern red oak
(Quercus rubra), black oak ( Q. velutinus), aspen (Populus tremuloides),
and elm (Ulmus spp.).  In mesic upland communities of the Southeast, it
grows as an overstory dominant with sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
and water oak (Quercus palustris).  Red maple has been included as an
indicator or dominant in the following community type (cts) and plant
association (pas) classifications:

Location        Classification          Authority

AL              forest cts              Golden 1979
MA              forest pas              Spurr 1956
se MI           deciduous swamp cts     Barnes 1976       
s MI            forest cts              Hammitt & Barnes 1989
NY              forest cts              Glitzenstein & others 1990
s ON            general veg. cts        Smith & others 1975

More info for the term: tree

Tree

More info for the term: tree

Toxicity:  Red maple browse is toxic to cattle and horses, particularly
during the summer and late fall [5,15,58].

Insects/disease:  Loopers, spanworms, the gallmaking maple borer, maple
callus borer, Columbian timber borer, and various scale insects are
common damaging agents [4,97].  Red maple has experienced periodic
declines in past decades.  Although the precise pathogens have not been
identified, evidence suggests that insects can weaken the trees, making
them more vulnerable to decline [4].

Damage:  Red maple is tolerant of water-logged soils and flooding [3,6]
and is intermediately tolerant of ice damage.  Red maple is susceptible
to decay after mechanical damage.  Butt rot, trunk rot fungi, heart rot,
and stem diseases are common in damaged trees; even increment boring can
cause result in serious decay.

Pollution:  Red maple is relatively tolerant of landfill-contaminated
gases [6], but ambient air pollution can damage the foliage [57].  Red
maple persists in industrially damaged woodlands near Sudbury, Ontario,
despite the accumulation of heavy metals in the soil [52].

Chemical control:  Red maple is resistant to herbicides and girdling
[66,97].  Picloram or cacodylic acid injected directly into the stems
can control red maple.

Silviculture:  Red maple is often poorly regarded as a timber species
due to its susceptibility to defects and disease, and poor form of
individuals of sprout-clump origin [27].  Red maple usually grows
rapidly after heavy cutting or high-grading, and crop tree release may
be a low-cost management option [27].  Mechanical thinning of clumps can
produce good-quality sawlogs on good sites [26].

The nutrient content of red maple browse varies with the genetic make-up
of the individual plant, plant part, position in the crown, phenological
development, and geographic location [22,28].  Soil moisture, soil
nutrients, fire history, and climatic conditions also influence food
value [22,28,29].

     AL  AR  CT  DE  FL  GA  HI  IL  IN  KY
     LA  ME  MA  MD  MI  MN  MS  MO  NH  NJ
     NY  NC  OH  OK  PA  RI  SC  TN  TX  VT
     VA  WV  WI  MB  NB  NF  NS  ON  PQ

Red maple is characterized by showy fruits and flowers and colorful fall
foliage [25].  Red maple was first cultivated in 1656 [78], and many
cultivars are available [23,63,84].  Red maple can be used to make maple
syrup, although sugar maple is much more commonly used [55,97.
 

Red maple is one of the most palatable white-tailed deer foods in
Minnesota [31]; stump sprouts are especially sought out by deer [74,92].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: fruit

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

More info for the terms: density, root crown, seed

Fire can stimulate sprouting of dormant red maple buds located on the
root crown [97].  Trees top-killed by fire often sprout vigorously and
assume increased prominence in postfire stands [85].  Seedlings also
sprout and may produce dense sprout clumps following fire [93].

Regrowth following fire is often rapid.  Regrowth begins during the
first month following summer and fall burns, and significant increases
in stem density occur by the third and fourth postfire months.  Martin
[74] observed red maple sprouts 2 weeks after a July fire in Nova
Scotia.  Red maple establishes through seed from June through August
[33].  Postfire increases in stem density commonly promotes red maple's
dominance within a stand [68].

More info for the terms: caudex, root crown, seed

   survivor species; on-site surviving root crown or caudex
   off-site colonizer; seed carried by wind; postfire yrs 1 and 2

More info for the terms: duff, forest, root collar, root crown, seed

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.

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: climax, tree

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].

Acer rubrum f. tomentosum (Tausch) Siebert & Voss
Acer rubrum f. rubrum
Acer rubrum f. pallidum

More info for the term: natural

Red maple is a member of the maple family Aceraceae [97]. It exhibits
great morphological variation and has been included in a highly variable
complex of related taxa [79,97]. The currently accepted scientific name
of red maple is Acer rubrum L. [97]. Many varieties and forms have been
identified, but most are no longer recognized. The following varieties
are commonly recognized [38,86]:

Acer rubrum var. drummondii (Hook. & Arn. ex Nutt.) Sarg., Drummond's maple
Acer rubrum var. rubrum, red maple
Acer rubrum var. trilobum Torr. & Gray ex K. Koch, Carolina maple

Red maple hybridizes with silver maple (A. saccharinum) under natural
conditions [64]. A hybrid product of this cross has been identified:
Acer X freemanii E. Murray, Freeman maple [64].

More info for the term: seed

Red maple can be planted onto many types of disturbed sites.  It can be
propagated by seed or by various vegetative techniques. Cleaned seed
averages approximately 23,000 per pound (51,100/kg).  Red maple is
reported to be somewhat tolerant of municipal landfill leachates [41].
Seedlings have been observed colonizing strip mine spoils in parts of
Maryland, West Virginia, and Florida [45,72], but seedlings transplanted
onto strip-mine spoil banks often do poorly [97].  Direct seeding in
old-field communities has not been successful [97].

Red maple is an important source of sawtimber and pulpwood [42] but is
often overlooked as a wood resource [100].  The wood is used for
furniture, veneer, pallets, cabinetry, plywood, barrels, crates,
flooring, and railroad ties [25,49,62].