My fiancee and I recently bought a house on a flat un-landscaped (sod only, minimal landscaping) lot and are looking for ideas regarding trees for 2017. I saw this photo:



and have no idea what that is but the coloring is stunning. Can anyone help ID this tree? It is probably a common one, but this is all new to me!

It's hard to identify many trees without seeing the leaves in close-up and often the twigs to see the leaf arrangement on them. Sometimes other characteristics are helpful, like the bark on the main trunk. It sounds like you found this picture somewhere so probably can't give us any more clues.

It looks like it could be a maple, perhaps a Japanese maple. Can you tell us where you are located as that would help with ideas and whether or not a particular tree is likely to do well for you?

sooby said: It's hard to identify many trees without seeing the leaves in close-up and often the twigs to see the leaf arrangement on them. Sometimes other characteristics are helpful, like the bark on the main trunk. It sounds like you found this picture somewhere so probably can't give us any more clues.

It looks like it could be a maple, perhaps a Japanese maple. Can you tell us where you are located as that would help with ideas and whether or not a particular tree is likely to do well for you?

We live in the suburbs of NYC. The area I would plant the largest of possible trees (trying to use only local plants as well) would be in uninterrupted sun, but if this red tree were shorter at full height I have some shade areas as well.

There is a better photo off of the photographer's flickr page but as I have a brand new account I cannot link to it! Let's see if a partial link works... at their site (.com) his album is at photos/keithmichaelnyc/31200398282/in/pool-gothamist/

Please note that I do not own that photo-it's just a reference!

I just get a file not found for that URL. Trying another way, here are pictures of Japanese maples in fall from Google. Your picture doesn't look like the cut-leaf ones but there are some that look similar. Do they match?

https://www.google.ca/search?q...

I believe that image is also a Japanese Maple selection (Acer palmatum), which is NOT a native/local species despite its beauty.

If that stunning range of red fall color is what you desire, and want to use a species native to the New York area, then I'd suggest perusing listings of Red Maple (Acer rubrum). There are many to choose from, almost all have stunning red to orange fall colors, and New York can be called home.