Size: tree, 20-30' average height at maturity
Buds: brownish black, imbricate, glabrous, terminal .375 long, angled, laterals .25" long, appressed and angled, slight spiral hook
Leaves: deciduous, terminal leaflet, 3-5" long, 1-1.25" wide with .5-1" petiole, lateral leaflets shorter, with .25" petiole, all petioles glabrous and reddish, trifoliate, lanceolate, pinnated, saw-toothed, medium to dark green above, glaucous below, changes to red in fall, earlier than most maples, not glabrous at midrib
Twigs: slender, first year growth is lustrous brown, glabrous, covered with numerous elongated vertical lenticels, second-year growth gray-brown with slight vertical fissuring
Flowers: monoecious, not very ornamental
Fruit: glabrous, 1-1.5" long samara in fall, wings form a right or obtuse angle
Bark: gray, smooth
