by bluespiritartist 5 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 5, 09 at 13:29

This is a very long shot but if anyone can steer me to what this was I would be so grateful! Last year I stopped at a visitors center in South Carolina on a Sunday when ..of course they were not open. Saw a tree that was planted by the building, aprox. 5 ft tall. It was a thin tree not more than maybe 1/2 thick. All the branches were bright red. The leaves looked like small maple leaves, green and delicate and they might have had a brownish red streak through them, but i'm not sure now. I asked people that stopped if they knew what it was, almost everyone said it was some kind of Japanese maple. I have never seen any maple that had fire engine red branches...it was so beautiful and of course I did not take a picture, and I am kicking myself for that. There were no seeds on it, this was in Oct of last year 08. Anyone have ANY ideas???