Small Maple Trees

Fall is a glorious time for maples as their leaves don their seasonal hues of red, yellow, and orange. If you watched the autumnal show of red and sugar maples, but bemoaned the fact that there was not room for such a large tree in your home landscape, take heart! There is a whole group of small, less well-known maples that deliver fall color and year-round appeal to even space-strapped gardeners.

All the small maples perform best in full sun, but most will tolerate a small bit of shade if necessary. Most have attractive fall color, lovely bark, and crisply shaped leaves. Most of the maples in the category of "small" grow only to about 20 feet tall. Here is a sampling of those that thrive in the Midwest, given adequate drainage and decently fertile soil.

Hedge maple (Acer campestre) is branched to the ground, resembling a large shrub. The small, tidy, dark green leaves change to yellow in the fall, and it is one of the best maples for dry, alkaline soil.

Paperbark maple (Acer griseum) is best known for its lovely cinnamon-colored bark that peels off in shimmering curls. The three-parted leaf is a rich green in summer and turns bright red to maroon in fall.

Three-flowered maple (Acer triflorum) also has exfoliating bark that's not quite as dramatic as that of the paperbark maple. The three-parted leaves are deep green, turning to yellows and rosy reds in fall. This excellent small tree has endless uses in the landscape -- from focal point to foundation planting to street tree.

Fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum) is an excellent substitute for those of us who cannot grow Japanese maples. This tree has many-lobed leaves, similar to the true Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), but it's much hardier and better suited to our region. One particularly nice feature of this maple is the presence of attractive flowers in spring. The red flowers hang down 3 or 4 inches, like jeweled earrings on a grand lady. The lobed leaves turn from deepest green in summer to all shades of yellow, red, and orange in fall.

Trident maple (Acer buergeranum) has leaves with only three lobes that open bronze to purple and then turn lustrous green for summer. The fall color ranges from yellow to orange to red, and the bark exfoliates in plates to reveal orange underbark.

Whichever small maple catches your eye, it is sure to please all year round.

Ream more at National Gardening Association.