Acer platanoides
Norway maple
How do you recognise Norway maple?
The leaf is large and divides into three or five points. In autumn the leaves turn yellow or orange. The trunk is brownish grey and smooth when young, dark grey and narrowly furrowed when old. The seeds come in winged pairs.
What is it confused with?
A rowan leaf divides into separate leaflets, while a maple leaf is one blade with deep lobes. The maple leaf’s points are long and sharp.
Where does Norway maple grow, and when does it flower?
Norway maple grows wild in mesic and dryish groves and in nutrient-rich deciduous and mixed woodland, especially near the sea. It flowers yellow before the leaves open, at the turn of May and June.
Can you collect it for a herbarium?
Norway maple is common in the south and widely planted, and one leaf is enough.
Did you know?
The winged seeds spin through the air like a propeller, and wind can carry them as far as five kilometres from the parent tree. They ripen at the end of summer and germinate only in autumn.
Where does Norway maple grow in Finland?
The map shows where the species has been recorded. Darker squares mean more observations.
Loading the map
Observations: GBIF · Map: CARTO, OpenStreetMap
Sources: fi.wikipedia.org
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Linnea identifies a plant from a photo and tells you its name and its story. Every find takes its own numbered place in your herbarium, with the day and the town where you found it.
