Red Maple Family (Black Diamond) Traditional Cache

These Red Maples are so tall, it was hard for me to make out the shape of the leaves, but they look like Red Maples. The leaves don’t seem healthy, shriveling up and not red. Is disease or the tight family a problem? BYOP!

Red Maple

Acer rubrum

Red maple is one of the best named of all trees, featuring something red in each of the seasons—buds in winter, flowers in spring, leafstalks in summer, and brilliant foliage in autumn. This pageant of color, along with the red maple's relatively fast growth and tolerance to a wide range of soils, makes it a widely planted favorite.

The natural range of red maple begins roughly at the eastern edge of the Great Plains north to Lake Superior, extending eastward to the Atlantic. But homeowners and urban foresters are growing this tree all across the United States.

Pros & Cons of Red Maple Trees

One of the most abundant trees in America's forests, red maple (Acer rubrum) makes a statement in the garden with its big canopy of wide, hand-shaped leaves. Growing in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9, red maple's intense fall color brightens the autumn landscape. Often planted as a shade tree, red maple offers the gardener many benefits, as well as a few problems.

Plant Characteristics

Red maple quickly grows into a 40- to-60-foot specimen with upward-reaching branches in an oval canopy. Not very picky about soil structure or fertility, it tolerates both wet and dry soils. Adding to its appeal, red maple can be planted in sun or shade. In spring, it produces maple's well-known, seedpod keys -- samaras.

Red Maple Pros

Red maple's fast growth makes it popular as a shade tree in new housing developments. It is easy to transplant, so the success rate for new plantings is high. Because its culture is so flexible, it can be planted on dry slopes or high spots in the yard. It can also be planted in damp soil. Outside of the garden, red maple's abundance and strong, tight-grained wood makes it an affordable raw material for the construction and furniture industries.

Red Maple Cons

Seeking water, red maple roots sometimes invade clay and iron drainage pipes, causing expensive damage. Poor branching habit sometimes causes branches to break in wind. Red maple is prone to anthracnose (Colletotrichum graminicola), a disease that disfigures the leaves with black spots. When severely affected leaves fall, they thin the canopy, resulting in reduced photosynthesis. In extreme drought, red maple is prone to tip die back in spring, which causes fresh growth to drop. Although these two diseases mar the tree's appearance, there is no recommended treatment as damage is not usually lethal.

Recommendations

When planting new trees, loosen clay soil by incorporating one-third garden compost. Water the plant thoroughly during drought the first few years. Mature red maples mostly fend for themselves, so water them only during extreme drought. The leaves of mature trees will wilt when they need to be watered. Prune out branches that cross and crowd each other to reduce wind damage. Plant red maple at least 20 feet from structures and drainage pipes.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, “small” pill bottle, that you have to push hard to open and close. Please put everything back as you found it, make sure the log is easy to reach for the next finder and recamo. Yes BYOP!