These flowers are on smaller trees which I have not identified in other seasons. It seems to me that the twigs and buds from which the flowers have emerged in the photos below match the buds in the above photos.
Why have these trees flowered before the other red maples? The trees that have flowered seem to be younger than the trees that are still showing buds. Do younger trees flower earlier?
Or are these flowers not really red maples? Silver maples have been flowering for a month. In The Sibley Guide to Trees, the picture of silver maple flowers looks similar to the picture of the red maple flowers. However, the flowers that I see on the silver maple trees look different. So I'll stick with the theory that these are red maple flowers.
According to The Sibley Guide to Treees, on red maples, usually female flowers are red and male flowers are yellow, so the ones in the photo must be male.
According the the Wikipedia entry about red maples, the flowers are red and "The tree itself is considered Polygamodioecious, meaning some individuals are male, some female, and some monoecious."
