Sycamore or maple? I have always had trouble identifying these trees, but hadn’t thought of tackling my ignorance until I read a recent Lucy Corrander blog post – as she also seems to have the same problem.
So bad is my confusion that in my wild garden I have a little clump of saplings I have been calling maple for years, just because I knew field maple were common in this area. Then I decided they were sycamores, but now I think they are a mixture of Norway maples and sycamores. I also DO have field maple saplings nearby.
Bear with me while I explore with some of my own old and new pictures and some from Wikimedia. As usual, let me know if I have got something horribly wrong – and please forgive me if you are in North America, as you have many completely different trees and a different system of common names for them!
Maples and sycamores belong to the Acer family. First let’s look at the commonest Acers in the UK…
According to my little Green Guide to Trees of Britain and Europe, there are four members of the maple family I am likely to encounter in Britain – sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) field maple (Acer campestre), Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and red maple (Acer rubrum).
Of these I think field maple is the only true native in these parts, but the sycamore is very well established and common, the first definite mention of it in England being in 1578. It was later planted widely.
As a child I knew several big sycamore trees and we used to play “whirlybirds” with the winged seeds that spiral through the air if you toss them up.
According to Wikipedia this sort of fruit is called a samara.
Maybe it’s because I remember sycamore trees as huge that I couldn’t imagine my saplings were the same species. Anyway, there is lots more detailed information on Acer pseudoplatanus on Wikipedia.
The name sycamore comes from Old French sicamor from Latin sycomorus from Greek sykomoros (sykon=fig and moron=mulberry). Originally the name referred to a fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) and in North America the name sycamore refers to plane trees Platanus occidentalis, P racemosa and P wrightii.
The second part of the Latin name, “pseudoplatanus” refers to the sycamore maple’s resemblance to the Platanus or plane tree.
Sycamore is such a lovely name and I wouldn’t dream of calling it a sycamore maple. To me maples are what you get in Canada.
I honestly thought you could tell a maple species by the number of points on the leaves – because I thought the Canadian 11-point maple leaf on its flag was real. Now I see it is just stylised and as you can see above, there was an earlier 13-point version before the current flag was adopted in 1965.
It strikes me now that the number of points on a sycamore leaf – or any other maple leaf, is very variable. The points also seem to get blunter and broader with age. Or maybe I am confusing rounded sycamore leaves with the more pointed leaves of some non-native maples.
Enough of sycamore. I can now also recognise the field maples in my garden.
I have to admit that for some reason I was confusing field maple leaves with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), which is ridiculous, really, as they are very different in size. Certainly they can’t be confused with the leaves of most other maples, which are much more angular and have sharper points.
I am amazed how late the sycamore and field maple leaves are turning and falling this year. It will soon be December and these pictures of mine were taken in the last week.
Then there are the other special ornamental maples, planted in parks and on streets: Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and red maple (Acer rubrum) mentioned above, and to these I think I should probably add silver maple (Acer saccharinum) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum).
I seem to have taken some pictures of one of these in Llandaff Fields last year…
By elimination, I believe the above to be Norway maple (Acer platanoides). It’s not silver maple – the leaves are too broad and of a different shape…
Then unless it’s something extra special, that narrows it down to Norway maple or sugar maple…
The leaves are similar, but the fruit are orientated differently.
So I think it’s Norway maple…
I’m sure you will let me know if I am wrong.
However, this leaves me with another problem as a friend of mine, a professional gardener, has now identified some rather nice yellow leaves in my yard as Acer platanoides and says this is a very common tree in this area. Wikipedia gave no clue to this, concentrating on America. That’ll teach me to rely on it so…
Which probably means most of those saplings of mine are also Acer platanoides (Norway maple)…
All that confusion just leaves one other maple I may apparently come across in Britain – red maple (Acer rubrum)…
If I ever see a red maple, I think I will be able to recognise it. In autumn the leaves are very red but the rest of the year they are green. They do, however, have red twigs and the leaves often have only three lobes instead of five.
Fingers crossed, I hope I haven’t gone too far wrong in my reasoning in this post and that you and I have both learned something from it…
I love sycamore trees but I have trouble identifying them from maples too! They are always such vibrant green through spring and summer, and overall just a very pretty tree. Red maples look beautiful too. Great post, thanks.
A few days after I first published this post, I had to rewrite it after speaking to a pro gardener friend. I had still got it all wrong and it looks like I have some Norway maple saplings as well as sycamore.
I love your recent “foraging to make a Christmas wreath” blog posts đŸ™‚
Pat…That is one of the things I miss terribly living in a tropical state..The changing of the leaves and the smell of Autumn. The trees here go from green to brown like overnight, and the tree is bald. I love visiting this website due to the fact it brings so many memorable moments of what once was.
By the way Sycamore leaves are thicker than Maple leaves..that’s one way I learned to tell them apart.
Thank you for sharing all the beautiful wonders of nature in words and pictures..
weedbychoice
Thanks for your comments – and the advice.
I now know what you mean about sycamore leaves being thicker – maple seem a bit more like paper, while sycamore seem a bit more bunched up and veined.
Best wishes đŸ™‚