Acer platanoides - Maple

Acer platanoides, or Norway Maple, is a very common maple species. With a beautiful glossy dark green foliage that turns orange-yellow in autumn, this tall tree with a pyramid-shaped crown is often used as a free-standing specimen or in an avenue. The Norway Maple is undemanding when it comes to the type of soil, as long as it is deep enough to accommodate its powerful root system.

Native to the Caucasus and widespread in Europe from Scandinavia to Spain and as far east as Russia, Acer platinoides is a large, fast-growing deciduous tree often associated with oak, lime and elm in our high-altitude forests. In some countries this light-loving species can be found in low- and mid-mountain regions, where it thrives in the cool air and deep, fertile, moist to damp, chalky soils. It can live up to 200 years.  At maturity, this single-trunk tree with a broad pyramidal crown will reach 20 to 30 m (65ft 7in - 98ft 5ft) in height and 15 m (49ft 2in) in spread. Its foliage is deciduous. The leaves are opposite, palmate, 10 to 20 cm (3.9 - 7.9 in) long, with 5 to 7 very pointed, toothed lobes. The buds are reddish-purple. The leaves are opposite, palmate, 10 to 20 cm long, with 5 to 7 very pointed, toothed lobes. The buds are purple-red. The leaves, borne on long stalks, are hairless and shiny in texture. They take on a lovely yellow to coppery hue in autumn. Insignificant flowers, in the form of upright corymbs of tiny yellow-green flowers, bloom before budburst, in March, on 15 to 20 year-old plants. In June, they give way to winged fruits 3 to 5 cm (2 in) long called samaras. The bark of this tree is brown, almost smooth, with numerous shallow longitudinal cracks.

The Acer platanoides is a tree that is easy-to-grow, magnificent as a free-standing specimen, in the middle of a park, for example. It is often used as an avenue tree to border large drives. It can be grouped with its purple-leaved counterpart, the 'Crimson King' Plane Maple, Purple Beech or 'Forest Pansy' Redbud.