Species
+

Acer rubrum L.

Maple, Ogö́hso:’, Red Maple, Red Maple, Swamp Maple, Water Maple, Soft Maple

Climate known 86 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Acer rubrum, the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant native tree in eastern North America. The red maple ranges from southeastern Manitoba around the Lake of the Woods on the border with Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, and southwest to East Texas. Many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Acer rubrum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia +40
Wild records
794 in range· 122 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1220mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 128 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1220 mm a year, wettest July at 128 mm, driest February at 82 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acer coccineum F.Michx.; Acer drummondii Hook. & Arn. ex Nutt.; Acer fulgens Dippel; Acer glaucum K.Koch; Acer glaucum Marshall and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (870 mm of 1220 mm) takes 8 months, March, May to October and December. Mean temperature moves 21.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April, June and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1220 mm a year, wettest July at 128 mm, driest February at 82 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1220 mm a year at the habitat, 870 mm of it March, May to October and December. Wettest month July at 128 mm, driest February at 82 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1086 mm to 1534 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.6 °C, the absolute minimum -25.4 °C, about 71 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.1 °C to 12.4 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1220 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 578 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -25.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost37.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-25.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 15–39RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 578 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / -0–2212 / 2–2317 / 7–2521 / 13–2726 / 19–3029 / 24–3231 / 26–3230 / 26–3227 / 22–3022 / 15–2816 / 9–2511 / 3–23
Night °C1 / -8–122 / -7–146 / -3–1510 / 3–1815 / 9–2120 / 15–2422 / 17–2521 / 17–2518 / 13–2412 / 7–217 / 2–173 / -4–14
Rain mm87 / 54–12982 / 63–133104 / 80–13391 / 64–119103 / 74–132117 / 98–209128 / 98–199118 / 88–208112 / 90–18794 / 76–13190 / 54–12594 / 56–136
DLI16 / 12–2221 / 18–2728 / 25–3335 / 31–3938 / 36–4139 / 38–4138 / 37–4035 / 33–3730 / 26–3224 / 19–2818 / 12–2315 / 10–20
RH %58 / 57–6158 / 55–6057 / 55–5956 / 55–5958 / 56–6160 / 57–6360 / 58–6461 / 58–6460 / 58–6458 / 57–6158 / 57–6059 / 57–61

Each figure is the median across the 578 grid cells holding the 748 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1084:2026 (35.775, -78.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -25.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 578 distinct grid cells holding the 748 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1084:2026 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected -13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 110 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia· introduced: Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Central European Russia, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker27.66, -80.891 · in the densest population, 190 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 794 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 122 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 263 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 46 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 794 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Acer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrumAcer rubrum

Photographs: (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Acer rubrum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States
Lewis M. Cowardin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Services Program (U.S.) (1979)
Abiotic and biotic stress combinations
Nobuhiro Suzuki, Rosa M. Rivero, Vladimir Shulaev, Eduardo Blumwald (2014) · New Phytologist
Two Categories of 13 C/ 12 C Ratios for Higher Plants
Bruce N. Smith, Samuel Epstein (1971) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Adaptation to Sun and Shade: a Whole-Plant Perspective
TJ Givnish (1988) · Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
Response of Plant Secondary Metabolites to Environmental Factors
Yang Li, Kuishan Wen, Xiao Ruan, Yingxian Zhao (2018) · Molecules
National-Scale Biomass Estimators for United States Tree Species
Jennifer C. Jenkins, David C. Chojnacky, Linda S. Heath, Richard A. Birdsey (2003) · Forest Science
Comparative phylogeography of unglaciated eastern North America
Pamela S. Soltis, Ashley B. Morris, J. S. McLachlan, Paul S. Manos (2006) · Molecular Ecology
Assessing data quality in citizen science
Margaret Kosmala, Andrea Wiggins, Alexandra Swanson, Brooke Simmons (2016) · Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Responses of spring phenology to climate change
Franz‐W. Badeck, Alberte Bondeau, Kristin Böttcher, Daniel Doktor (2004) · New Phytologist
Wood modification by heat treatment: A review
Bruno Esteves, Helena M. Pereira (2008) · BioResources

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Acer 18 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.