Red Maple male flowers

Many people are surprised to learn that trees have flowers. They apparently have not thought through how seeds can develop if there are no flowers. I have been interested in tree flowers since I was given a copy of Norman Fassett’s Spring Flora of Wisconsin when I was a boy. It is a handy little guide to plants that flower in Wisconsin before June 15th and useful throughout Michigan. From it I learned that Red Maple (Acer rubrum) flowers have petals and Silver Maple (A. saccharinum) flowers do not. I began to look for tree flowers.

Red Maple perfect flowers

There are additional characters used to distinguish flowers of the two species. Red Maples have separate  sepals and on Silver Maples they are connected. The ovary on Red Maples is hairless and on Silver Maples it is hairy. The soft maples flower before their leaves develop and often I find flowers on the forest floor so it is nice to be able to identify the trees from only their blossoms.

Silver Maple L – male flowers R – perfect flowers

Soft Maples normally have separate male and female flowers. They can be on the same tree. Perfect flowers are known but are rare.

Get out and look at the maples while they are flowering. Watch what is pollinating them. Enjoy one of the first flowers of the year.

Copyright 2016 by Donald Drife

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