Leaf guide › Maples
Bigtooth maple
Acer grandidentatum
The small maple that paints canyons red in the Wasatch, the Southwest, and the Texas Hill Country.
- Fall color
- RedOrangeYellow
- Turns
- Mid to late season
- Leaves
- Opposite (in pairs)
- Size
- 2–5 in. across
- Found in
- Rocky Mountain and Southwest canyons, and isolated stands in central Texas
How to recognize it
- Leaf with three main lobes, sometimes five, and a few large, blunt teeth.
- Smaller and thicker than a sugar maple leaf.
- Leaves grow in opposite pairs along the twig.
- Usually a small tree or a shrubby thicket in canyons and on mountain slopes.
Where to find it
Look for it in canyons and on foothill and mountain slopes in Utah’s Wasatch Range, northern Arizona and New Mexico, and in a few protected canyons in central Texas, such as Lost Maples State Natural Area, where it is known as the Uvalde bigtooth maple.
Where you’ll see it this fall
Bigtooth maple is one of the main trees in the fall color at these destinations. Dates are the typical peak.
Texas: Lost Maples (Nov 12)
Utah: Park City (Oct 2)
Easy to confuse with
Sugar maple
A close relative with larger leaves, found in the East and Midwest, not in the West.
Worth knowing
Some botanists treat bigtooth maple as a western form of sugar maple. In the Wasatch, its red and the orange of Gambel oak color whole mountainsides, and at Lost Maples it draws crowds every November.
Common questions
What color does bigtooth maple turn in fall?
Bigtooth maple turns red, orange, and yellow, often bright red.
Where can you see bigtooth maples in fall?
In Utah’s Wasatch Range, the mountains of northern Arizona and New Mexico, and at Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country.
How can you tell bigtooth maple from sugar maple?
Bigtooth maple has smaller, thicker leaves with a few large, blunt teeth, and it grows in the West and in central Texas. Sugar maple has larger leaves and grows in the East and Midwest.
See where the color is peaking today.
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