Maggie’s Phenology Project

For the second part of my tree phenology assignment, I am actually using a different tree. I was corrected on INaturalist, and my tree was not actually a Red Maple due to its alternate branching pattern! Therefore, I returned to Centennial Woods and found a new specimen with opposite branching and buds that I believe are Red Maple.

This tree appears young and therefore has quite small buds. However, they are very red and align with images I’ve seen. I believe that as spring progresses, the buds will grow and align more with the images of Red Maple buds that are large and bunched together.

My tree, as shown on the iNaturalist screenshot, is a budding Red Maple; I found it at the entrance to Centennial Woods near Centennial Court. Its lookalikes include the Sugar Maple and Norway Maple. I was able to dismiss Sugar Maple in my identification process because the buds are rounded rather than spearlike. Norway Maple was harder to rule out, so I used the resource below for comparison. I decided that the buds I found were too red to be Norway. Additionally, I believe the tree is in an early stage of budding and the side buds are therefore not as prominent as the terminal buds yet.