Trident maples have greenish-yellow flowers and they appear in conjunction with the leaves, not before. Any chance of a closer shot of whatever is hanging off those branches :-)

those are actually flowers i think ... the bigger the flower production.. the more seeds you will get.. good luck with that.. lol ...

some pix of leaves ..close up.. perhaps after a storm in summer .. will help with an ID ...

or if you can find some laying around from last fall???

ken

maple.. probably.. something in the family anyway ... my box elder looks like that right now ...

i wonder if an ID can be made on flowers ... when some fall off in a week or 3???

ken

^^ That's a pretty reasonable guess :-) Not many maples flower before the leaves emerge but Acer rubrum does and produces pretty showy red flowers to boot!

Also trident maple has noticeable red-brown, flaking bark once it gets big enough - this tree is Acer rubrum.

Red Maple or Acer Rubrum. Made maple syrup out of the sap from about 10 trees here. Very watery sap. The flowers are a sure sign the sap is no longer usable. Most of my fall colors are yellow, only one is red, the male.

Agree w/red maple seeds.

Wow. So I still have never seen a Trident Maple then. Thank you for the identification, you folks are fast!

As requested gardengal48, just for you:

Those appear to be samaras already, not flowers .

Yes, the flowers have already gone over. That can happen pretty fast and the samaras are quick to ripen and drop......usually by the end of this month.

Can't take a closeup picture, unless I have superpower for flying, LOL. I was on the very edge of a cliff, kind of, while taking these blurry pictures. However, from what you all said, I checked the pictures of Acer Rubrum online. One of them looks like mine.

But funnily, I have never noticed this maple being there, because last fall, I did not see ANY slightly orange or red leaves in my backyard....... I was surprised to see this tree all at sudden with this beautiful color of flowers these few days.

Thank you all