Field maple or London plane?

Both have lobed leaves.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the leaf and how it sits. Field maple: small, to 10 cm wide, in opposite pairs. London plane: up to 24 cm long, set one at a time. No leaves on the tree? Check the trunk.

At a glance

Look at	Field maple	London plane
Leaf and how it sits	Small, to 10 cm wide, in opposite pairs	Up to 24 cm long, set one at a time
Trunk	Pale brown, close ridges, small squares with age	Patchwork of grey, cream and olive plates

Two ways to tell them apart

Leaf and how it sitsLeaves

Field maple: leaf and how it sits — Field mapleSmall, to 10 cm wide, in opposite pairs

London plane: leaf and how it sits — London planeUp to 24 cm long, set one at a time

TrunkBark

Field maple: trunk — Field maplePale brown, close ridges, small squares with age

London plane: trunk — London planePatchwork of grey, cream and olive plates

Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

Field maple

Acer campestre

Field maple is a dense, domed tree, or a clipped shrub in hedges. Its small leaves have rounded lobes, and its paired keys spread almost in a straight line.

How to identify field maple →

London plane

Platanus × hispanica

London plane is a big city tree with bark that flakes off in patches of grey, cream and olive. All winter, round bristly seed balls hang from its bare branches.

How to identify London plane →

Their other lookalikes

Field maple or sycamore?Quickest check: the lobes and their teeth

Field maple or hawthorn?Quickest check: the bare shoot

Field maple or spindle?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf

London plane or eucalyptus?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf

London plane or sycamore?Quickest check: how the leaves sit

London plane or Norway maple?Quickest check: how the leaves sit

London plane or wild service tree?Quickest check: how the lobes are set

In the app

See them side by side in Treely

Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them

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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: ubovich (CC0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), oliverc29 (CC BY 4.0), Wendy Herniman (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.