The Paradox of the "Super Generalist": The Red Maple That Took Over the Forests of the Eastern United States

A creative scene imagining an abandoned old farm field in New England in early spring. Leafless red maple branches hang across the top of the picture, with small clusters of red flowers drooping at the tip of every branch. A woman character with curly reddish-brown bobbed hair and freckles sits on a low moss-covered stone wall, smiling as she looks down at a slender young tree growing from the ground in front of her feet. She wears a rust-red field jacket, a gray knit, jeans, brown work boots and a red flower hairpin. One hand rests on her knee and one on the stone wall. Behind her are a pond, a leafless forest and young trees scattered across the field; there are no autumn leaves. The figure, place and composition are creative and not a real place. — The tree drawn as a character (AI-made illustration)

At a glance

Tree: Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
Age · era: 1998 (Abrams paper), 1964 (adopted as Rhode Island's state tree)

Story

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA NRCS) plant guide introduces the red maple (Acer rubrum) as one of the most widely distributed trees in eastern North America. It also calls it one of the most successful and abundant species in the eastern deciduous forest, "arguably the most abundant" species, and the "super generalist" that grows in the widest variety of sites. Citing the ecologist Abrams (1998), the same guide says the tree will probably continue to increase its dominance in the upper canopy in the next century and widely replace the historically dominant tree species of the eastern U.S. forests, and writes that fire suppression contributed greatly to its spread but no single trait is the cause of its success. According to Penn State records, the title of Abrams's 1998 BioScience paper is "The Red Maple Paradox: What explains the widespread expansion of red maple in eastern forests?" Its sap is about half as sweet as that of the sugar maple but is also used for maple syrup production, and pioneers made dye from bark extract and ink from bark tannin with iron sulfate added. The state of Rhode Island officially adopted this tree, chosen by a vote of schoolchildren in the 1890s, as its state tree in 1964.

Sources — 4 records and legends

Records are facts written in the sources. Legends are stories handed down over time. Sources are in Korean.

Record

From the Facts & Figures page of the official website of the state of Rhode Island (RI.gov): the red maple is the state tree of Rhode Island. According to the state's official guide it was chosen by a vote of schoolchildren in the 1890s, but was not officially adopted until 1964.
미국 로드아일랜드 주정부 공식 사이트(RI.gov) Facts & Figures · checked 2026-09-30
The USDA NRCS plant guide writes that the red maple is one of the most widely distributed trees in eastern North America and, in the eastern deciduous forest, "arguably the most abundant" species that reproduces vigorously after fire, logging and farmland abandonment, and a "super generalist" that grows in a greater variety of sites than any other species in North America. Citing Abrams (1998), it says the tree will probably continue to increase its dominance in the next century and widely replace the historically dominant tree species of eastern U.S. forests, and records that fire suppression contributed greatly to its spread but no single trait is the cause of its success.
USDA NRCS Plant Guide 'RED MAPLE Acer rubrum L.' (National Plant Data Center & Biota of North America Program) · checked 2026-10-04
The USDA plant guide writes that red maple sap is about half as sweet as that of the sugar maple but is sometimes used for maple syrup production and tastes good, and records that pioneers made cinnamon-brown and black dyes from bark extract and ink from bark tannin with iron sulfate added.
USDA NRCS Plant Guide 'RED MAPLE Acer rubrum L.' · checked 2026-10-04
According to Penn State records, Marc Abrams published "The Red Maple Paradox: What explains the widespread expansion of red maple in eastern forests?" in BioScience, volume 48, issue 5, in May 1998, and the abstract writes that this "super generalist" has low resource requirements and does many things fairly well under varied ecological conditions.
펜실베이니아주립대 연구성과 DB — Abrams, M. D. 'The red maple paradox: What explains the widespread expansion of red maple in eastern forests?' BioScience 48(5):355-364 (1998) · checked 2026-10-04

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