Size: tree, 40-60' average height at maturity
Buds: blunt tips, red-brown, usually 4-6 visible scales, each scale fringed with hairs and often rounded, flower buds slightly larger, often in clusters with vegetative bud at center
Leaves: deciduous, opposite, 2-5" long and wide, simple, 3 or 5 triangular or ovate pointed lobes, irregularly toothed, medium or dark green above, (or yellow-green in chlorotic trees in high-pH urban soils), gray or light green underneath, fall color often vibrant reds, yellows, oranges
Twigs: slight fragrance when broken
Flowers: usually dioecious, red or orange-red, bloom in March, males more orange, females more red, petals (unlike A. saccharinum)
Fruit: double samara, ripens in spring, usually drops and germinates by the end of May
Bark: smooth, light to dark gray in young trees, sometimes almost beechlike, scaly, fissured, dark gray in old trees
