Female and male Red Maple Flowers: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, April 2025 — I was not aware until yesterday, when someone commented on my photo of Red Maple flowers, that there are male Red Maples and female Red Maples, and that the flowers are different. I have never, apparently, seen a female Red Maple tree…or at least not looked close enough for it to register. Both of the big maples in our yard are, it turns out, male, and the ones I have photographed in the neighborhood over the years have all been male. So, of course, I had to go out to find a female Red Maple yesterday. It wasn’t hard and I did not have to go far. The neighbors behind us have at least one female Red Maple in their yard. It has no low branches so the photo above is of flowers high in the tree, taken with a long zoom and cropped in to show the detail. The second photo is male flowers for comparison. Those were on a low hanging branch. A little googling around has taught me that, not only are there female and male Red Maples, but some trees have both flowers, and some trees, apparently, change gender over the years. I also was able to confirm my impression that there are more male Red Maples in a local population than females, sometimes by a ratio of 3 to 1. That makes sense, at least to me, since maples have to rely on wind-blown pollen for reproduction, and the more pollen in the air, the better chances the female tree will be fully fertilized. I am always surprised by how little I actually know about the world around me…and delighted by how much there is to learn. Female and male maples. Who knew?