The Red Maple is a common tree in the Eastern United States. It can be found as far south as Florida and as far north as Southern Canada. It gets the “Red” part of its name from the deep red color that its leaves become during the Fall, but less well known is the red color of its flowers in the early spring. They are not exceptionally large flowers, and many people miss them, but they are one of the earliest flowers to bloom during the year. By the time most plants are just starting to emerge for the year, the Red Maple is already producing seeds, some of which will sprout that same year. This quickness to produce seeds (and the large quantity of seeds) makes the Red Maple one of the most successful trees at colonizing recently disturbed areas and makes them a staple of early successional forests. They are also commonly selected as ornamental trees due to being able to recover well from damage or disturbance and due to well maintained ones having very pleasing aesthetics. These two living situations combined make the tree very common in any type of environment no matter the level of human presence.
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