“These are the early spring flowers of a red maple, right after the buds have opened but before the tree starts forming its seeds. This is the stage where the tiny red blossoms are fully expanded and releasing pollen, but the familiar helicopter pods haven’t begun to develop yet.”

Each red maple flower is tiny — usually only about 1/8 to 1/4 inch across (roughly 3–6 mm). They look larger in clusters, but each blossom is very small on its own. In real life, each flower is so small that most people walk past red maples in full bloom without realizing they’re flowering at all.

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This is our first year with this tree in our yard. Hopefully, many more photos will come over the years as it matures. See my Silver Maple Flower gallery: https://pbase.com/britestar/maple_tree_flowers


If one takes the time to really look, maple trees have small but very interesting flowers each spring.