On your tree it is just the leaf stems that are growing downwards, not the twigs or branches, so not a weeping tree which would have the branches growing downwards. The leaves tend to grow in an arrangement that gives them the light levels they need, and since this is a tree that likes sun, the leaves have grown in a pattern that maximizes the possible sun for each. The tree seems healthy, but rake up leaves and dispose of old leaves to minimize the available fungal spore for next season as Bill suggested.

And just so you know to reduce future confusion when discussing this tree, this isn’t what is commonly called a red maple (the common name for Acer rubrum), it is a red foliaged Norway maple (Acer platanoides.). Common names can cause confusion since they at times can be used for more than one kind of plant. Nice clear photos BTW, thanks.

Hm, the tag on the tree when I bought it said it was a Redpointe Red Maple.

http://www.jfschmidt.com/redpointe/

Red maples - Acer rubrum - do not have red leaves during the growing season. But they can have pretty stunning red fall color!! It is just not real clear from your photos if this tree has red leaves during the growing season or if it is just starting to develop fall color. Since I see a lot of green in the leaves, I'd guess the latter :-))

Red maples also tend to have rather long leaf petioles so that allows the leaves to hang down very naturally, almost giving the appearance of weeping. As Babs noted, truly weeping forms will also have pendulous or weeping/hanging branches as well.

I am not aware of any red maple cultivar that have a true weeping habit............

In your second picture the soil immediately around the tree looks pretty dry, the lawn around it - although green - not particularly lush. Try providing a mulched area of some size beneath the tree to help improve the rooting environment, by shading the surface of the soil and preventing moisture from being quickly baked out of it by the summer sun.

You can probably reduce the amount of seeming irrelevancy being generated by the posting of any future questions by including:

1. Where, geographically plants asked about are located

2. What specific kinds plants are, when known

3, Relevant details of involved cultural history, such as how often water was applied and how much was applied each time, and so on

I stand corrected that it isn’t a Norway maple, but the leaf shape, with its deeper sinuses between the lobes looks a bit off of any pure red maple I have seen In New England or the Great Lakes region.

Yes: if you look at the Schmidt page linked to above then - despite what they say - this introduction appears to have Freeman maple leaf outlines.

This is in Northern VA near Washington DC.

On the front ”lawn” of the university of tennessee just next to regional one health hospital in memphis and just ajacent to a parking garage theres a full sized, non-japanese mature maple tree that has a weeping habit. i cant find any reference to weeping maples without getting bombarded with japanese varieties. it has beautiful fall colors. i grafted a twig onto a red maple and am crossing my fingers.