Summer ICE Program 2013
Environmental Elective
Red Maple
Habitat
Native Range
Red maple is one of the most abundant and widespread trees in eastern North America (26). It grows from southern Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and southern Quebec to southern and southwestern Ontario, extreme southeastern Manitoba, and northern Minnesota; south to Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; and east to Florida (33). It has the greatest continuous range along the Atlantic Coast of any tree found in Florida-an extent of 2575 km (1,600 mi) (32). The species is native to all regions of the United States east of the 95th meridian, with three exceptions: Prairie Peninsula proper of the Midwest, the coastal prairie of southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas, and the swamp prairie of the Florida Everglades. The most notable exception is the Prairie Peninsula, where red maple is absent from the bottom land forests of the Corn Belt, though it grows abundantly in similar situations and species associations both to the north and south of the Peninsula (54).
- The native range of red maple.
Special Uses Red maple is known in the lumber industry as soft maple. The wood is close grained and resembles sugar maple but is softer in texture, not as heavy, lacks the figure, and has somewhat poorer machining qualities. Red maple in the better grades is substituted for hard maple, particularly for furniture. Red maple lumber shrinkage from green to ovendry moisture content is slightly more than shrinkage for hard maple in radial, tangential, and volumetric measurements (60). Brilliant fall coloring is one of the outstanding features of red maple. In the northern forest, its bright red foliage is a striking contrast against the dark green conifers and the white bark and yellow foliage of the paper birches. Red maple is widely used as a landscape tree. Although the hard maples-sugar and black maple (Acer nigrum) are principally used for syrup production, red maple is also suitable. When sap and syrup from sugar maple were
Summer ICE Program 2013
Environmental Elective
compared with those of red and silver maple, boxelder (A. negundo), and Norway maple (A. platanoides), they were found to be equal in sweetness, flavor, and quality (30). The buds of red and silver maple and box elder break dormancy much earlier in the spring than sugar maple, however, and the chemical content of the sap changes, imparting an undesirable flavor to the syrup. Consequently, the tapping season for red and silver maple is shorter than that for sugar maple. Red maple is a highly desirable wildlife browse food. Elk and white-tailed deer especially use the current season's growth of red maple and aspen as an important source of winter food (25). Timber harvesting slash can provide an important source of browse to help sustain the animals. Red maple, sugar maple, and paper birch trees cut any time after leaf fall provide browse as nutritious as, and more acceptable than, trees cut immediately before leaf fall (3). Reference: Walters, R. S., & Yawney, H. Red Maple. USDA Forest Service. Retrieved from [Link]
State Tree: Red Maple (acer rubrum) Adopted on March 6, 1964 The Red Maple was voted as the state tree by school children in the 1890's. But it wasn't officially adopted as the state tree until 1964. In the fall, the leaves turn gold, purple, and scarlet, adding to the beauty of Rhode Islands forests. Reference: State Symbols. [Link]. Retrieved from [Link]