Silver maples look similar, but often have shorter trunks, and very deep lobing on leaves. Their twigs also releases a foul odor when broken. Silver maples are less common than red maples, especially in the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
Plant of the Month: Red maple
chase.bergeson • May 10, 2023
Red maple (Acer Rubrum)
Red maples (Acer rubrum) are our most commonly observed tree species at our wetland sites! In fact, they are a very commonly observed tree species across the southeastern U.S. They are very versatile trees that can live in all sorts of habitats including wet, dry, high, low, sunny, or shady spots. One of the ways they can survive in such a wide range of habitats is their adaptable roots that can grow deep to find water in drier areas and spread wide in wetter areas. Red maples are often found in wetlands and in the southern parts of their range are sometimes called “swamp maples.”
Red maples attract songbirds, pollinators and provide habitat for over 250 species of moths and butterflies. They can also be used for maple sugar production although the use of sugar maples is more common.
Acer indicates that this tree is part of the maple family: Sapindaceae and rubrum means red! And this maple is red! The flowers are red, the stems (or petioles) of the leaves are red, its twigs are reddish, the fall color is often scarlet, and the fruits can be red too!
Red maples flower early in the spring before it leafs out. It is easy to pick out on roadsides from all of its bunches of tiny red flowers. Its fruit is a samara- where the seed is enclosed at one end of a leaflet. These samaras grow in pairs that give it a great spin when it falls from trees, often thought of as little helicopters!
Fruit (samaras)
Photo By: Roger Debenham
Flowers
Photo By: nerdbrained
Fall color
Photo By: cgbb2004
Reddish stems and buds
Photo by: Sara Rall
The leaves are serrate with 3-5 lobes. They are similar to the leaf shape of the maple on the Canadian flag, but much more jagged. They are pale colored on the underside.
Leaves
Photo By: Chuck Cantley
Leaves
Photo By: Yasmeen Nunez-Gomez
Leaf underside
Photo By: Tessy Ciesielski
The bark is smooth and grey when they are young, but can be scaly as it gets older. This plant has opposite branching, meaning that one branch should always have a twin growing at 180 degrees from it. Of course, in the life of the tree one of the branches might fall off or be damaged, so always check for any opposite branching on the tree. If you can look closely, you might see a scar on the tree where you would expect to see a branch, indicating that there used to be one present.
Young bark
Photo By: Flora Ceracine
Old bark
Photo By: VTforester
Opposite branching
Photo By: Amanda Johnson
Red maples can be confused with silver maples (Acer saccharinum) or Mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), neither of which we have yet identified in our monitoring plots.
Mapleleaf viburnums have similar looking leaves to red maples and also have opposite branching. This shrub will never grow above about 6-feet tall, but could be confused with young maples. Its leaves tend to be a little bit rounder and more deeply veined than red maples. They also have white flowers and dark berries. They tend to grow low and in clumps. These plants also like dry areas, so you are unlikely to see them in a wetland!
Red maples can grow to be 60-90 feet high, so looking closely at branches, flowers, or leaves may be difficult. One way to help you identify such a tree is to look on the ground for fallen leaves, fruits, or young saplings. These can help you to identify the tree as long as you are reasonably sure that they came from the tree you are trying to identify.

We are sure to see some red maples on our monitoring visits, so practice your identification skills in your own neighborhood, by looking at our iNaturalist page, or by joining us to practice using iNaturalist next Wednesday at our iNaturalist practice session.
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Celebrating Our Carolina Wetlands
A Decade of Celebrating Carolina's Wetland Treasures
On September 9, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) offering additional ways to define “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). Why this definition matters The WOTUS definition determines which water bodies the federal government can protect under the Clean Water Act. In November 2025, the agencies proposed revisions to bring the definition in line with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA. After taking public comments, they have now put forward further options. The new proposal narrows federal jurisdiction even more, potentially stripping protections from the vast majority of U.S. wetlands and seasonal streams. What our comment letter says The Carolina Wetlands Association is submitting comments opposing the proposal. Our main concerns: It would undermine the Clean Water Act’s purpose. The law’s goal is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. This proposal would severely undercut that goal. The “days of water” test is a poor measure. The proposal decides jurisdiction by how many days a year water is present. That number correlates poorly with a waterway’s ability to carry pollution downstream to the rivers, lakes, and estuaries that would stay protected. Streams dry for as few as 30 days a year could lose protection, and polluters would have an incentive to discharge into them rather than into protected waters. Drinking water is at risk. About 56% of North Carolina’s stream miles feeding public drinking water systems are intermittent, ephemeral, or headwater streams. In South Carolina the figure is 51%. These systems serve 6.6 million people, who would bear higher health risks and treatment costs. Wetlands do critical work. They filter pollutants and nutrients that cause algal blooms, dead zones, and fish kills. Losing that function would also degrade groundwater, which many people drink untreated. The legal reasoning is flawed. We argue the agencies misread the Supreme Court’s language. “Relatively permanent” describes geographic features such as streams with defined beds and banks. The word “continuously” modifies “flowing” and doesn’t limit what counts as relatively permanent. It would be hard to implement. Many affected streams have no data showing how many days they lack surface water. That makes the rule difficult for agencies to administer and leaves landowners unable to tell whether the Clean Water Act applies to their property. The impacts haven’t been analyzed. The agencies should not finalize a rule before measuring the added pollution flowing from newly unprotected waters into those that supply drinking water, or projecting the resulting damage to downstream uses. What you can do Read the SNPRM Submit your comment by October 9, 2026, under Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OW-2025-0322 . Personal stories about the streams, wetlands, and drinking water you depend on are especially effective. Learn more: read the comments we submitted on the November 2025 version of the rule, many of which still apply.
Welcoming New Members to the Carolina Wetlands Association Board