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Red Sunset Maple Tree: Fruiting

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From: Paul Grant City: Franklin, WI
Are sunset maples supposed to produce those helicopter like seeds? I bought a young one 3-4 years ago and it is growing nicely, but the leaves are always green and now I have those helicopter that I adamantly didn't want when I bought it. I think they gave me the wrong maple. Thanks for your help.
	Extension Message From: Jay Hayek Extension Specialist, Forestry Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences jhayek@illinois.edu
Greetings Paul: Red maple (Acer rubrum) "flowers are structurally perfect. The species is polygamo-dioecious. Thus, some trees are entirely male, producing no seeds; some are entirely female; and some are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers" (1). From your question, it is obvious that you either received a female tree or a monecious tree because your tree is producing samaras. Source: (1) http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/acer/rubrum.htm
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