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Acer rubrum

February

Maples are valued for their leaves, above all, and especially in autumn. We tend to forget their early spring flowers. I’m not sure whether the American red maple takes its name from its flowers or its leaves, (or its fruit which is also red) but by the end of February the former are giving a spectacular show.

The silver maple, Acer saccharinum, flowers first, with a heavy crop of branch-tip pink flowers, pretty in close-up but not colouring the canopy. The red maple does better. In a good year it looks like a scarlet mist in the treetops.

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