Introduced, naturalised · Up to 30 m

Norway maple

Acer platanoides · Sapindaceae

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.

Often mistaken for sycamore. How to tell them apart →

Know it by

LeavesFive pointed lobes, and a snapped stalk oozes milky sap.

FlowersSmall flowers in upright, branching heads, March or April.

KeysIn pairs, 3.5 to 5 cm, each with a flat, disc-shaped seed.

Then check · Red-brown budsBroad, shiny buds, reddish brown, in pairs. The shoot is slender and glossy, flecked with tiny white spots.

How to identify a Norway maple

Leaves

Broad, with five pointed lobes and a few long teeth drawn out into fine hairs. A snapped stalk oozes milky sap.

Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0

Flowers

Upright, branching heads of small acid yellow flowers that cover the crown in March or April, just before the leaves.

Keys

In pairs, 3.5 to 5 cm long, their wings spread wide, nearly in a straight line, each with a flat, disc-shaped seed.

Learn the Norway maple in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely

Every part, in photographs

Norway maple leaves: five lobes, few long teeth, hair-tipped — LeavesFive lobes, few long teeth, hair-tipped

Norway maple flowers: upright acid yellow heads, just before the leaves — FlowersUpright acid yellow heads, just before the leaves

Norway maple keys: paired keys, wings spread almost in a line — KeysPaired keys, wings spread almost in a line

Norway maple bark: pale grey, small close criss-crossing ridges — BarkPale grey, small close criss-crossing ridges

Norway maple red-brown buds: slender speckled shoots, broad reddish brown buds — Red-brown budsSlender speckled shoots, broad reddish brown buds

ShapeNeat leafy dome to 30 m

When to look

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In leaf

Flowers

Keys

In leaf: April to November · Flowers: March to April · Keys: April to October

Every tree on the calendar · How to identify trees in winter

Where you’ll find it

Planted along streets and roads, in parks, gardens and churchyards, and in woods and hedges, mostly in the lowlands. Wild ones come up from seed in scrub, rough grassland, young woods and neglected ground in towns.

What it’s mistaken for

Norway maple or sycamore?Both are big five-lobed maples with paired keys.Leaf edge

Norway maple or London plane?Both are big street trees with five-lobed leaves.How the leaves sit

Norway maple or Japanese maple?Both have lobed leaves in facing pairs, and both have purple garden forms.Whole tree

Field mapleBoth run milky sap from a snapped leaf stalk and both spread their keys nearly flat. Leaf. Norway maple: pointed lobes, a few long hair-tipped teeth. Field maple: rounded lobes, a few big blunt teeth.

More maples and horse chestnut

Field mapleAcer campestre

Horse chestnutAesculus hippocastanum

Japanese mapleAcer palmatum

SycamoreAcer pseudoplatanus

In the app

There’s more of the Norway maple in Treely

Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
A short round each dayUntil you know the Norway maple on sight, from any side
Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree

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Free to download.

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), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Jason Grant (CC BY 4.0), Katja Schulz (CC BY 4.0), jcollatz (CC0), oliverc29 (CC BY 4.0), Yoshihiro Tokue (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.