Why Does My Red Maple Turn Yellow?

Red maples provide brilliant leaf color in native forests from Maine to Florida.


Nothing gold can stay, wrote poet Robert Frost. So enjoy those yellow leaves while you can. Although you may expect the leaves of your red maple tree (Acer rubrum) to blush a deep scarlet in autumn, some varieties blaze yellow instead. Yellowing leaves on a red maple in spring or summer likely indicate a health issue.

Tangled Up in Red

If you plant a red maple for red growth, you won't be disappointed. The tree is deep in the red. The first signs of life in its spring renaissance are ruby flowers in thick clusters that grace the tree's bare limbs from March through early April. Stems and twigs grow in red as well, and the tree's fruit, the winged samara that fall like helicopter blades, appear a bright shade of maroon. All red maple leaves "flame" in the fall, but those "fires" can be gold, orange or red.

Tree Habitat

The red maple is a hardy native tree that swells the forests in the eastern one-third of North America, stretching from Quebec, Canada, to Minnesota in the north to Florida and Texas in the south. In its native habitat, the tree soars to 120 feet, but a cultivated specimen generally stays one-half that tall. Red maple is hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 though 9 and thrives in moist, acidic soil.

Premature Yellowing

When the leaves of a newly planted red maple turn yellow well before fall, something is amiss. Determine whether or not the tree is appropriately situated. If you try to grow a red maple in a climate that is too warm for the tree, then the tree's foliage may yellow and die. Likewise, a red maple planted in alkaline soil can develop iron or manganese chlorosis that generally shows up the first season after transplant. Inspect the yellowing leaves for green cells near leaf veins to confirm a diagnosis of chlorosis. The best solution for that problem is to transplant the tree to an area of your property with acidic soil.

Sign of Death

When a tree dies, its leaves often discolor and finally turn brown. A cultivated maple is exposed to adversities it does not experience in its native habitat, and if a condition kills the tree, the tree's leaves change color. In an area where icy roads are salted, for example, a tree planted nearby absorbs the salt. Red maple is mortally sensitive to salt, and a salt-affected red maple's leaves can yellow as the tree dies. Another possible cause of yellowing leaves is root and crown rot. Those diseases can attack ornamental trees planted in soil with poor drainage, causing tree leaves to discolor and die.

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