[1][2] There are approximately 132 species, most of which are native to Asia,[3] with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America.

Many maple species are grown in gardens where they are valued for their autumn colour and often decorative foliage, some also for their attractive flowers, fruit, or bark.

[6] The closest relative of Acer is Dipteronia, which only has two living species in China, but has a fossil record extending back to the middle Paleocene in North America.

The oldest known fossils of Acer are from the late Paleocene of Northeast Asia and northern North America, around 60 million years old.

The oldest fossils of Acer in Europe are from Svalbard, dating to the late Eocene (Priabonian ~38–34 million years ago).

Most species are deciduous, and many are renowned for their autumn leaf colours, but a few in southern Asia and the Mediterranean region are mostly evergreen.

[clarification needed] Many of the root systems are typically dense and fibrous, inhibiting the growth of other vegetation underneath them.

A few species, notably Acer cappadocicum, frequently produce root sprouts, which can develop into clonal colonies.

One species, Acer negundo (box-elder or Manitoba maple), has pinnately compound leaves that may be simply trifoliate or may have five, seven, or rarely nine leaflets.

Maples flower in late winter or early spring, in most species with or just after the appearance of the leaves, but in some before the trees leaf out.

[10][11] Molecular studies incorporating DNA sequence data from both chloroplast and nuclear genomes, aiming to resolve the internal relationships and reconstruct the evolutionairy history of the group, suggest a Late Paleocene origin for the group, appearing first in the northeastern Palearctic.

[12][13] Fifty-four species of maples meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria for being under threat of extinction in their native habitat.

In high concentrations, caterpillars, like the greenstriped mapleworm (Dryocampa rubicunda), can feed on the leaves so much that they cause temporary defoliation of host maple trees.

Infestations of the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) have resulted in the destruction of thousands of maples and other tree species in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio in the United States and Ontario, Canada.

Sooty bark disease, caused by Cryptostroma species, can kill trees that are under stress due to drought.

[19] The design on the flag is an eleven-point stylization modeled after a sugar maple leaf (which normally bears 23 points).

The first attested use of the word was in 1260 as "mapole", and it also appears a century later in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, spelled as "mapul".

[22][23] Some species of maple are extensively planted as ornamental trees by homeowners, businesses, and municipalities due to their fall colour, relatively fast growth, ease of transplanting, and lack of hard seeds that would pose a problem for mowing lawns.

[5] Numerous maple cultivars that have been selected for particular characteristics can be propagated only by asexual reproduction such as cuttings, tissue culture, budding or grafting.

Acer palmatum (Japanese maple) alone has over 1,000 cultivars, most selected in Japan, and many of them no longer propagated or not in cultivation in the Western world.

Charcoal from maples is an integral part of the Lincoln County Process used to make Tennessee whiskey.

[26] Maple is also commonly used in archery as the core material in the limbs of a recurve bow due to its stiffness and strength.

[32] The back, sides, and neck of most violins, violas, cellos, and double basses are made from maple.

[34] Québec, Canada is a major producer of maple syrup, an industry worth about 500 million Canadian dollars annually.

The sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is the primary contributor to fall "foliage season" in north-eastern North America.

In Korea, the same viewing activity is called danpung-nori and the Seoraksan and Naejang-san mountains are among the best-known destinations.