ACERACE^E MAPLE FAMILY 



Acer rubrum, L. 



March-April Red Maple, 



Swamp Maple, 

 Scarlet Maple, 

 Water Maple. 



Acer: from Celtic for hard. 

 Rubrum: Latin for red. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: swamps and woodlands. 



THE TREE : usually low, but sometimes thirty or thirty-five 

 feet high; with smoothish or flaky bark, and reddish twigs. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; very variable in shape, ranging 

 from ovate to orbicular; above, when young, covered with 

 matted wool, but soon becoming green and hairless; below, 

 whitish along the veins; at the apex acute or acuminate; 

 at the base cut off squarely or heart-shaped; on smooth, 

 reddish-green stems; three to five lobed, the middle lobe 

 longer than the others, the lobes irregularly toothed. 



THE FLOWERS: minute; borne on the branches of the 

 previous year, appearing much before the leaves; the 

 petals linear-oblong, on very short stems. 



THE WINGED FRUIT: with which we are all so familiar, is 

 called a samara and is borne on a long stem. 



In Nantucket swamps, this prettily-leaved tree is usually 

 of no greater stature than a shrub, but in sheltered 

 woodlands, it does attain a height of not less than thirty 

 or thirty-five feet. Its twigs are reddish, its leaves lobed 

 similarly to those of the cultivated maples and in the early 

 202 



