The flowers are greenish and inconspicuous. The fruit, called a two-winged samara or key , differs from other maples in that it matures in the fall and germinates the next spring. The bark on young trees is light gray to brown and rather smooth, later breaking into long irregular plates of bark that often loosen vertically along the side. Red maple is common in the north central and northeastern portions of the state and is usually found in moist soils adjacent to wetlands and swamps. It is also found on drier sites in mixed stands of other trees.
Red maple is quick growing and makes a fair shade tree for light soils.
Red maple is usually a medium-sized tree forty to sixty feet high and one to two feet in diameter, though it is sometimes larger. While widely distributed, it is short-lived and forms only a negligible part of commercial timber stands. Some varieties are cultivated for ornamental purposes. Leaves turn brilliant red in autumn. The flowers appear in dense clusters in early spring before the leaves, and, although small, are quite conspicuous because of their red color.