Plant · P-030

Red Maple

Acer rubrum

Red maple is one of the most adaptable trees in eastern North America, thriving on everything from swampy bottomland to dry rocky hillsides and putting out red flowers before almost anything else blooms in late winter. Its sap can be tapped for syrup, though at roughly half the sugar content of sugar maple, and the wood turns into furniture, flooring, tool handles and firewood. The one thing that catches people off guard: wilted or dried fallen leaves are toxic to horses, causing fatal red-blood-cell damage, so pastured trees need their leaves kept out of reach rather than the tree itself removed. It also casts dense shade and a mat of surface roots that make it hard to grow turf or other plants close to the trunk.