Rhode Island State Tree

Rhode Island State Tree

Red Maple 

Red Maple Aceraceae Acer rubrum
Rhode-Island-Red-Maple-tree
Leaf
Opposite, 3 to 5 palmate lobes with serrate margins, sinuses relatively
shallow (but variable), 2 to 4 inches long; light green above, whitened and sometimes glaucous or hairy beneath.

Flower

Appear March to May, usually before leaves; usually bright red but
occasionally yellow.

Fruit

Clusters of 1/2 to 3/4 inch long fruit with slighly divergent wings,
appear May to June, on long slender stems. Light brown and often reddish.

Twig

Reddish and lustrous with small lenticels, buds usually blunt, green
or reddish (fall and winter) with several scales usually present, leaf scars V-shaped, 3 bundle scars, lateral buds slightly stalked, may be collateral buds present.

Bark

On young trees, smooth and light gray, with age becomes darker and breaks up into long scaly plates.

Form

Medium-sized tree. In forest, trunk usually clear for some distance,
in the open the trunk is shorter and the crown rounded.

Copyright 2019 Virginia Tech Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental
Conservation; Photos and text by: John Seiler, Edward Jensen,
Alex Niemiera, and John Peterson;Silvics reprinted from Ag
Handbook 654; range map source information