London plane or Norway maple?

Both are big street trees with five-lobed leaves.

The quickest check

The quickest check is how the leaves sit. London plane: one at a time along the shoot. Norway maple: in pairs, facing each other. No leaves on the tree? Check the fruit.

At a glance

Look at	London plane	Norway maple
How the leaves sit	One at a time along the shoot	In pairs, facing each other
Fruit	Bristly balls, two to six to a hanging stalk	Paired keys, wings almost in a straight line
Winter bud	A reddish horn under one scale	Broad and reddish, in facing pairs
Older trunk	A patchwork of grey, cream and olive	Small close pale grey ridges, often crossing

Four ways to tell them apart

How the leaves sitLeaves

London plane: how the leaves sit — London planeOne at a time along the shoot

Norway maple: how the leaves sit — Norway mapleIn pairs, facing each other

FruitSeed balls

London plane: fruit — London planeBristly balls, two to six to a hanging stalk

Norway maple: fruit — Norway maplePaired keys, wings almost in a straight line

Winter budTwigs and buds

London planeA reddish horn under one scale

Norway mapleBroad and reddish, in facing pairs

Older trunkBark

London plane: older trunk — London planeA patchwork of grey, cream and olive

Norway maple: older trunk — Norway mapleSmall close pale grey ridges, often crossing

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

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 →

Norway maple

Acer platanoides

Norway maple grows into a neat dome. Its leaves have a few long teeth drawn out into fine hairs, and acid yellow flowers cover the crown in March or April, just before the leaves.

How to identify Norway maple →

Their other lookalikes

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

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

London plane or field maple?Quickest check: the leaf and how it sits

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

Norway maple or Japanese maple?Quickest check: the leaf edge

Norway maple or sycamore?Quickest check: the leaf edge

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: Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), oliverc29 (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Susan Marley (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0), Katja Schulz (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.