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Red maple

Acer rubrum

Climate-suitable non-native

Growing guidance

Horticultural figures below are practitioner estimates for planning, pending expert review. The botanical record further down is sourced and verifiable.

Current-climate suitability

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Future-climate resilience

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Sun

Sun or shade

Soil moisture

free-draining, average, moisture-retentive

Heat tolerance

Up to about 40°C

Cold tolerance

Down to about -35°C

Waterlogging tolerance

4/5

Drought tolerance

3/5

Mature size

10–18 m tall, 9 m spread

Seasonal interest

Autumn colour · Scarlet

Maintenance

low

Wildlife supported

General wildlife value 4/5 (verified species relationships are shown only where structured data exists)

How to plant it

General steps for this plant. Save a garden and these become specific to your location, soil and light.

  1. Step 1When to plant

    Plant during November to March, whenever the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.

    Woody plants establish best planted while dormant, so roots grow before the first summer.

  2. Step 2Where to put it

    Choose sun or shade — this plant tolerates both. Allow 9 m of room around it — mature spread is 9 m and mature height 10–18 m.

    Light in your garden is not answered, so this is the plant's own requirement.

  3. Step 3Preparing the ground

    Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper, loosen the sides, and plant so the top of the root ball is level with the surrounding soil.

    Soil is not answered. This plant grows in free-draining, average, moisture-retentive conditions.

  4. Step 4Watering while it establishes

    Water thoroughly at planting (20–30 litres), then only when the top few centimetres of soil are dry, through the first two full growing seasons.

    Even a drought-tolerant plant (3/5 here) only becomes drought-tolerant once established.

  5. Step 5Mulch

    Spread 5–7 cm of composted bark or garden compost around the plant, keeping it clear of the stem.

    Mulch cuts water loss and suppresses weeds through the first summer, when losses are most likely.

  6. Step 6The first year

    Check it after strong wind and in long dry spells. Little else is needed.

    Maintenance level on the plant record is low.

  7. Step 7What to watch for

    Surface roots lift paving near driveways.

    Taken from the plant record and your measured climate figures, not from a general description.

Spacing: about 9 m apart — roughly 1 plant for every 10 m² if planted as a group.

What this guide could not use

  • No location saved, so planting times are general rather than local.
  • Soil moisture is not answered, so soil preparation is general advice.
  • Light is not answered, so the position below is the plant's own preference.
  • Whether you can water is not answered, so watering assumes hand watering.
Answer five questions to make this specific

Built by fixed rules from: Plant record for Red maple (last reviewed 2026-06-01). Planting guide version gf-planting-1.0.0. Timings and volumes are practitioner estimates for planning, not a substitute for local nursery advice.

Known risks or warnings

Surface roots lift paving near driveways.

Toxicity: none

Status and jurisdiction

Climate-suitable non-native in United Kingdom (Great Britain).

Register consulted: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy distributions for Great Britain

Record review status: reviewed · last reviewed 2026-06-01 · plant data version gf-plants-2026.09.18. Status claims are never inferred from climate similarity, and growing figures are estimates pending expert review.

Verified botanical record

Accepted scientific name
Acer rubrum L.
Family
Sapindaceae (Sapindales)
Rank and status
species · accepted
GBIF record
Taxon 3189883

Recorded as introduced in: Belgium, British Columbia, Central European Russia, Flemish Region, Germany, Great Britain, Oregon, Poland, Walloon Region, Washington

Ranges are exactly as recorded in the GBIF source checklists and may be incomplete for widely cultivated species.

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. At maturity, it often attains a height around 30 m (100 ft). Its flowers, petioles, twigs, and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn. Over most of its range, red maple is adaptable to a very wide range of site conditions, perhaps more so than any other tree in easter

Description from Wikipedia — Acer rubrum (CC BY-SA), shortened and unedited in substance.

Native status and geographic context

  • United Kingdom: climate-suitable
  • United States: native
  • Australia: climate-suitable

Native status is never inferred from climate similarity. Plants restricted or invasive in a jurisdiction are excluded from recommendations there.

What to do next

Create a Garden Profile to see whether this plant suits your conditions.

Demonstration data

These figures come from the demonstration dataset kept for testing and as a fallback when the measured climate service is unavailable. They are representative, not observed, and are never presented as validated live data.