PlantFiles: European Maple, Norway Maple
Acer platanoides

One of my favorite trees (among the various oaks, maples, hollies, cherries, dogwoods, spruce, pine, willows and cedar on my property). It began as a sapling, which I transplanted after three years to replace a dying oak. After eight years it is just over two stories high and provides outstanding shade from the mid- and late-afternoon sun. Because of its lush foliage, it is one of the most anticipated for leafing out in Spring (along with the beautiful Crimson maple, cherry and dogwoods), and it maintains its lush appearance throughout the hot humid summer. One of the best for withstanding strong storms, it is situated at the least protected spot on my property. I have no problem at all underplanting with garden sage within the drip line, and various from roses to lilacs just beyond the drip line on the sunny side, lawn grass on the shady side. I have trimmed the very lowest branches so that the trunk is bare up to about 4-5 ft, and this has kept the undergrowth happy. The Fall leaf color is bright yellow, and after fallen are easily mulched and added to the compost. The seeds are favorites of the squirrels and are not really a problem. An occasional seedling is pulled, but I seem to see as many wild cherry and elm as maple, neither of which I have grown, from seeds deposited by birds. Speaking of the birds, they seem to enjoy the privacy provided by the tree as much as I do. My neighbors have also planted them conspicuously because of their appreciation of mine.

I wish I hadn't plant it in two locations in my yard many years ago. Beside evergreen, it is the hardest tree for planting plants under. Often those plants seem to become dwarfish due to the heavy shade produce by the large leaves. Like with evergreen, I figure the trees are thirsty and suck up any moisture you try to hose on the plants underneath while rains are deflected to either the trunk or outside the tree, even evaporated away from the leaves before reaching the ground. They also look ugly when winter hit earlier than normal, with dry green leaves that is held for a month. It's amazing how much punishment they took in our zone 4 climate but still are able to reproduce theirselves! It make you shiver at the thought at what zone 5 or warmer climate trees are like! They also have shade tolerance, not as much as silver maples. The only other plant that are constantly tormented by our winters but still thrives are buckthorns as they held on to their leaves through December but loses nutrients and other stuff from their leaves before they can absorbs them back in the plant.
I forgot to add that they also seed themselves like crazy! Early Summer 2006 there were a blizzard of seeds from the tree and it still have lots of seeds (thank god most of the seeds is infertile this year) at the time of typing in mid October

Norway maples do not mature well in the midwest. Nearly every mature midwest city tree has a twisted trunk with a visible split twisting from root to crown. Does not age gracefully.

Was popular for its pollution tolerance in urban settings, but is being phased out from the list of elligible species for planting in many cities.

Reseeds like crazy and may have been listed as invasive in some east coast areas. Definately wreaking havoc in New England's Sugar Maple forests.

Please reconsider before planting this European species near naturalized, native, rural, or protected areas.

Beautiful fall foliage. Grows well in zones 4-7 and does well within city limits. This tree is very popular because it is densely branched and has a nice form.

The Norway Maple is a horrible tree and no one should ever plant one. It is terribly invasive, and though it is planted in urban areas, it often spreads to natural areas where it decreases the biodiversity of the forest or woodlot and prevents the natural regeneration of native vegetation.

This tree is commonly planted along city streets due to its ability to tolerate pollution and urban conditions.

It has an excellent round shape, and the leaves usually have a purple-red tint to them through the growing season before turning clear yellow in the fall.

Big leaved maple species. Very common in Fennoscandia and northern Europe. Leaves have beautiful fall colors, they appear in yellow, red, light-purple, and brown, depending on the weather and growing place. Fast growing.