From then on, other vine maples follow in a progression throughout late summer and fall. Originally suspected of being useful only in shady sites, this versatile large shrub or small tree adapts to a wide variety of urban conditions from sun to shade and from wet to dry. It has rapidly become one of the most useful landscape plants in the Northwest. It is quite easily identified as a maple in appearance. The flowers, for maples, are among the best to be seen.
Most specimens display wine-colored sepals contrasting with the whitish petals.
Surrounding bud scales are also crimson. Most often seen growing with several trunks, it can be pruned to one central trunk and as a small tree. But in the urban landscape, its multitrunk growth is desirable for screening or borders. In heavily forested areas, it will form almost impenetrable thickets. Growing to more than 30 feet tall in the wild, it usually is somewhat shorter in urban sites.