Flowers March to April, with male and female flowers on separate trees. Occasionaly used in municipal plantings as a street tree and in churchyards and parks also sometimes on roadsides in the wider countryside. (Box-elder) Introduced from North America. A small, often multi-stemmed tree, most notable for its rich mahogany, flaking bark. May also be found in churchyards or municipal plantings. Reported where persisting from original plantings in a handful of places in Suffolk. Similar to Silver Maple but with much less deeply cut, three to five-lobed leaves.įemale flowers (above) Male flowers (below) A broad-crowned tree with gracefully arching to pendulous branches and craggy bark. Flowers March to April before the leaves. Occasional as a street tree and in municipal plantings, often as varieties selected for their bright autumn colours, for which this species is well known. Occasional as a street tree and in municipal plantings, most often as the cut-leaved variety 'Laciniata'. Young shoots rich orange-brown, often becoming covered in corky wings when growing in sunny sites.

Leaves very variable in the width of their lobes due to the use of imported plants from a number of different sources. Capable of grwoing to 25m or more as a tree but much more common as a clipped hedge. Very common throughout with any native distribution now masked by extensive plantings of a range of different varieties. Wings of paired fruits strongly diverging.Ī native tree but also commonly introduced from mainland Europe and used for hedging. Leaves similar to Sycamore but with much more pointed lobes. The bright yellow flowers are carried in erect bundles and are very eye-catching when seen en masse in spring. Purple or variegated forms are frequent as street trees or in churchyards, but variegated trees tend to eventually revert to green. Frequent throughout the region as a utility tree along roadsides and sometimes in forestry stands and hedgerows. Leaves similar to Norway Maple but with much less pointed lobes. The hanging trusses of yellow flowers are distinctive in spring. A very variable tree that can reach 30m in height and form a large, stately tree in parkland habitats, but which is often smaller and more spindly in woodland or shaded environments. Abundant throughout the region, self-seeding readily and now well-established as part of the landscape, especially in urban, suburban and disturbed habitats. Most of our species can be identified quite easily simply by the leaves, but details of the winged seeds and the flowers can also help. The flowers are variable but often quite showy and are followed by winged fruits that are wind-distributed. The leaves of maples are typically palmate, with a number of veins all radiating out from a common point at the base of the leaf, and are carried in opposite pairs.

They are a common feature of the countryside as well as in parks and as roadside amenity trees. Our maples include both native species of woodland and hedgerow and a range of species grown as ornamental trees. For a long time, maples were classified in a family of their own - the Aceraceae - but more recently they have been included in a much larger family (the Sapindaceae, along with a few other familiar trees, such as the Horse Chestnuts. If the sap is white, it’s a Norway maple sugar maples have clear sap.The maples are mostly a readily recognisable group of trees once learned, but some of the species can be tricky to tell apart from each other. Start by cutting the leaf stalk and squeezing out some sap. Maples that are too young to flower are harder to tell apart, but you can do it by looking at the leaves. The two wings of a Norway maple seed spread at almost a 180 degree angle from each other, while those of a sugar maple hang down together at a much narrower angle. The bark of Norway maple has regular grooves while an older sugar maple’s bark has thick, irregular plates.įor a less subtle identifier, look at a maple’s fruit, the “airplane” familiar to everyone. One way to tell them apart is by their barks. Larger trees that have gained foothold in forests and fields can be done in by merely cutting away a ring of bark from the trunk at whatever height is most convenient.īefore killing any Norway maple, it is necessary to positively identify it unfortunately, the maple that comes closest in appearance is our native, slower growing sugar maple. Fecundity and winged seeds have made Norway maple too much of a good thing, so I’m yanking out any small plants that I come upon.

Norway maple leaf type