Sunday, November 8, 2020

Red Maple, Silver Maple




Every house must have come with a silver maple tree in the front yard.  It was the 1960's, and silver maples were cheap and grew quickly.

But they make horrible yard trees because their wood is weak and they grow to be humongous.  There are very few silvers left, but the tree on the right is one of those. In nature, they typically have yellow leaves in the fall.

Many of the silver maples have been replaced by smaller cultivars of red maple, many of which have bright crimson leaves in Autumn.  

This image captures a bit of the past, and a bit of the present, all playing out in our neighbor's front yard.

-Tom