Big Leaf Maples?

We have them in certain places of California but does anyone know if they turn red ever?

In my recent research I've found a few photos where they have turned red but just a tiny percentage of the whole tree. The rest were of course gold.

Steve,

The Big Leaf Maple (aka Broadleaf, or Oregon Maple) turn yellow. I've seen a few in our area that have a tiny amount of red, but on the whole, they were the rich yellow. The small amount of red is likely due to prevailing conditions of soil, moisture content, and temperature.

Others, such as the Red Maple, Sugar Maple and Japanese Maple do turn red: they are not native to CA.

-P

I've never seen one turn red and I imagine there's a scientific reason for it. I tried looking it up and came across this very technical link. If you can read through this without re-reading half of it, then more power to you. Interesting none the less...

Funny question as I was just up in the Santa Cruz mtns. last weekend exploring some of the trails with these trees. I was late for peak bloom. But the trails were covered with the leaves. It didn't see red. But I did see many shades of yellow, gold, brown, rust, etc.... which provided more interesting colors than I had initially thought. Here are a couple examples: http://landandseaphoto.smugmug.com/Locations/Northern-California-2009/7049912_hqPLs#713420781_EDoQ8-XL-LB

http://landandseaphoto.smugmug.com/Locations/Northern-California-2009/7049912_hqPLs#713416252_WKemo-XL-LB

Derek

Thanks for the link Lon. Leaf Peepers! That was pretty intense and yes technical too. A translater would there.

Thanks Derek. There is enough there to catch a variety of color.