Acer rubrum
Red Maple ( Acer rubrum) in autumn colors
The Red Maple, botanical spelling red maple (Acer rubrum) has a large distribution area in the temperate zone of eastern North America. This species is higher than 30 meters and has small, narrow leaves with forward-facing, finely toothed lobes. The name derives from the bright red in autumn. As with the sugar maple wood for furniture, hardwood floors, wood turning, etc. is used, but is softer than this and is accordingly marketed in North America as " American soft maple ".
1964 appointed the U.S. state of Rhode Iceland to Red Maple to his Landmarks ( State tree).
Description
The Red Maple grows tree -shaped and reaches a height 20-27 meters, in exceptional cases up to 38 meters. For free- standing trees, the crown is high oval and not very dense. Young twigs are green, later they turn shiny brown. At thicker branches and trunks the bark is only gray-brown and smooth, with older specimens, a bark developed with narrow longitudinal furrows.
The root system below the surface remains flat. In seedlings, the root curves after five centimeters vertical growth sideways. Most roots go no deeper than 25 centimeters, but they are far-reaching and can still be found in 25 meters distance from the trunk. Of the woody, horizontal roots fibrous roots develop upward through the roots intensively the top layer of soil. The root system is very adaptable to different soil conditions and tolerates both drought floods. Counter pouring and compacting the red maple is but sensitive.
The leaves are five-lobed, with the bottom two lobes can be formed only indistinctly. The diameter of the blades is about ten centimeters. The leaf margin serrate, the upper leaf surface is dark green, the underside lighter and slightly bluish or whitish.
The flowers appear well before the leaves emerge. The flowering period begins in the south of its range in January, at the northern end of April to early May. At a very young plants begin to bloom. There are plants that are monoecious, others wear exclusively female or male flowers. The flowers are red and stand together on slender stems in dense inflorescences. The fruits ripen shortly after the leaves and germinate only for a short time. By the autumn the young seedlings are already up to 30 inches high.
Dissemination
The Red Maple is widespread in eastern North America; there he has a very large area of Florida and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Great Lakes and to Newfoundland. From the Atlantic coast to the east it is spread over the Appalachian Mountains to the edge of the prairie. In the south of the Appalachian Mountains, he rises up to 1800 meters altitude, in the north of its range, only 600 meters. In the northern half of its campus, he is more frequent than in the south and on the edge of the prairie.
Are correspondingly diverse forests, where the Red Maple occurs. In the north there are mixed forests, where it occurs together with the sugar maple and numerous conifers such as the American Red Spruce ( Picea rubens ), balsam fir (Abies balsamea ) and White Pine (Pinus strobus ). Further south, close to deciduous hardwood forests, such as with the American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ), the red oak (Quercus rubra ) and the tulip tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ). In the south, semi - evergreen and deciduous trees and several pine species such as Pinus taeda added.