Acer saccharum 'Fall Fiesta' (Sugar Maple)

Acer saccharum 'Fall Fiesta' is regarded as a stand-out cultivar of sugar maple for its vigorous growth rate, its showy, deep green summer foliage, and its strikingly festive autumn colors. In addition to its aesthetics, 'Fall Fiesta' is also noted for its excellent disease and environmental resistance, tolerating and thriving through heat, wind, drought, leaf tatter, and leaf scorch! Even among other sugar maples, 'Fall Fiesta' is noted as a fast-grower, 

'Fall Fiesta' is a fast-growing tree, although it is a bit slower when compared to other sugar maples, growing only 12-24" per year. However, this growth rate will eventually take the tree to staggering sizes of up to 40-100' tall and slightly more narrow, maintaining its upright, symmetrical form all the way. In the spring, Acer saccharum 'Fall Fiesta' produces small red and green flowers that are occasionally eaten by birds, but which also mature to samaras, winged seed pods for easy dispersal by wind, in the later spring and summer. Like the red maple, sugar maples support host colonies of Rosy Maple Moth (Dryocampa rubicunda) and Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia) caterpillars, which also help to attract birds and small mammals. In the fall, this cultivar's large, bright green leaves turns to shades of yellow, orange, and red putting on an unforgettable 'Fall Fiesta' of autumnal hues and making it an especially showy specimen or shady tree.