I chose this tree as a response to "What is the best TREE for fall color?" As director of the Arboretum, I respond to phone calls with this question as well to being asked when leaving church, standing in line at the supermarket and even when getting a flu shot each fall! EVERYONE wants to know the best tree for fall color! Actually, this question is a bit easier to respond to than, "What is the single best DAY to see the best colors of autumn in the community?" or "What is the day BEFORE the Ginkgo will lose its leaves?" It still was a query which I took to our staff.

David Horst, our horticulturist was very definite: "It has to be the Autumn Spire Maple. Dr. Hasselkus (Ed Hasselkus, Professor Emeritus Horticulture, University of WI-Madison) donated it to us in 1997 and it has grown almost twenty feet tall, which is quite fast-growing for a Maple. It is our best Red Maple, in my opinion."

Jerry Widel, grounds maintenance, said, "It is not the biggest or the closest or even the easiest to find, but it the brightest and has the best fall color of all the trees in the Arboretum. It is a hidden treasure and worth the search."

This is a cultivar which was introduced by the University of Minnesota in 1992 from a native seed source near Grand Rapids, Minnesota. It has been praised by Michael Dirr for of its cold hardiness, brilliant red fall color and broad columnar form. More specifically, it may grow to about fifty feet tall and twenty feet wide. .

Of special interest is the fact that the showy red male flowers in the spring before the leaves open are indications that it is a male clone and will not produce the "helicopters" in the fall, which are a nuisance to homeowners and a joy to children.

Viewing this tree seems to bring back every memory of autumn. I have had visitors tell me of building leaf houses, recalling the smell of burning leaves and the fun of jumping in leaf piles. I have had others offer poetry: "Fall is leaving the quiet timber ... as the last brown leaf struggles to reach the ground. A final statement. And the earth trembles." Or "Nature saves her biggest show for last. In the autumn, the world seems to take a deep breath and hold it. In the stillness of the glittery autumn sunlight, the trees and shrubs gleam."

May you take this opportunity in early September to anticipate autumn and the colors of the arboretum. As the days and nights cool, look for the first signs of the beauty of the Autumn Spire Red Maple.