Red Maple or something different?

There is this tree right outside of the pasture where the horses are kept. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is, but my friend said it might be a red maple. The leaves were never green... they always came in as a dark color.

In the beginning of the summer, catapillars ate all the leaves, but when the leaves came back in, like I said, they were never green.

This is the best picture I have of the tree right now.



I have a leaf in the car, but I can't get to it right now.
I'll take a better picture of the tree tonight.

I don't really think it's a red maple because I can't see my BO having it on the property if she knows its toxic for them. They're very good about not having any toxic plants out there...

ETA
That picture was taken on July 10, 2008.. if that helps at all

He-he... My neighbor knows it's toxic and still has bunch of them around (NOT on horse property but near the house). It's hard to say from pic though...

Ok... i'll take a good pic of it today.. I might even ask my BO what it is.

I googled red maples and none of the picture that came up looked like that tree.. atleast to my untrained tree eye.

I know my parents have one at their house and it doesn't look like it...i think it's a red maple anyways...

It very well can be just dogwood tree. We have lots of them around with read leaves.

I've never seen a dogwood with red leaves...doesn't mean they don't exist...just that I haven't seen any.

To me it looks like a red maple...but I'm no tree expert. I think asking the BO is the best thing to do.

Here's pictures of all the maples I can find. Any match?

http://web.reed.edu/trees/TreePages/ACER.html and http://flowergardens.suite101.com/ar..._in_the_garden

It looks like a Japanese Maple to me. True Red Maples start off with green leaves and they turn red in the fall.