Several cultivars of Norway maples (Acer platanoides) have purple or bronze foliage all season, so they’re often called “red maples”. These are popular because they have gorgeous fall color (like red maple and sugar maple) but grow twice as fast. “Autumn Blaze” actually belongs to a hybrid family called Acer freemanii, a man-made cross between red and silver maple, combining the traits of both. There are other maples with red fall foliage, like the popular “Autumn Blaze”, which are not true red maples. Our favorite is “October Glory”, because it gets spectacular red fall color and keeps its leaves for many weeks after they turn red. There are hundreds of Acer rubrum cultivars, varying quite a bit in shape, growth habit, leaf color, hardiness and other traits. The species gets its name from its flower color, though many red maples have reddish seeds and red fall foliage as well. True red maples (Acer rubrum) are magnificent shade trees with GREEN foliage that generally grow 40 feet tall and wide, although some get much larger. “Red maples” fall into four basic groups: true red maples, Norway maples with red foliage, upright Japanese maples, and weeping cut-leaf Japanese maples. Did you know that red maple gets its name from these distinctive blooms? Withing days, the blooms fall onto the pavement like blood-red snow. ❮ ❯Īs spring unfolds, the deep red blooms of red maple trees along the roadsides and in the woods really stand out.
It’s one of four tree varieties commonly called “red maple”. True red maple gets its name from the flower color, not the leaf color.