A few years ago there was a conversation on this site about a large shaggy bark maple in central Maine that no one seemed to be able to identify. I'm in southern Maine and have come across several large, old (at least 100 years old) 3-lobed maples that I can't identify. The leaves look a bit like mountain maple but since that's a shrubby plant, that doesn't work. Here are a couple of pictures. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
pharvie1950, I am not yet good at identifying trees by bark and structure. If you can post an up close photo of a leaf, I might be able to help you out. Tim
Old Red Maples will get bark like that. Hard to see the leaves well but I'm guessing that's what you have: A. rubrum. The Brunswick location would also support that. -E
Ditto to Red Maple Acer rubrum. Silver Maple has similar bark, but the leaves are more deeply divided.
I stand corrected! I'm new to maples and most folks around here (at least that I talk to) call the red variety of Norway maple "red maple". Ah, the reason for sciientific nomenclature. Also, the "best" key I use has red maple leaves represented with a distinctly 5-lobed outline. Upon further looking, however, I see that that isn't always the case. Thanks for all the replies. peter