Common
name: Norway MapleScientific name: Acer platanoides
Family: Aceraceae
This Tree in Colorado:
Not as widely used here as in other parts of the country, where it has been overplanted. It is more tolerant of heat, drought and alkaline clay soil than most maples. Best below 6500’.
Habit:
Varies with cultivar, from rounded to oval to columnar
Size:
Varies with cultivar; most will reach 40’ over time.
Growth rate:
Varies with cultivar, slow to medium.
Cultivars:
There are about 100 cultivars known; among the most common are ‘Columnare’, ‘Crimson King’, ‘Crimson Sentry’, ‘Deborah’, ‘Emerald Queen’, ‘Jade Glen’, ‘Parkway’, ‘Royal Red’, ‘Schwedleri’, and ‘Summershade’.
Hardiness:
some cultivars Zones 4, others 5.
Flowers:
greenish yellow, small, very attractive for a tree considered a shade tree. Flowering is in April prior to leafing.
Leaves:
Opposite, simple, 5-lobed, 3-6” across. Petiole is long, 3-4”. Some cultivars have rust to red-purple new leaves that fade to green by summer, others remain red-purple all season. Some of these may exhibit leaf scorch in our high sunlight intensity. Fall color varies but can be a very nice yellow.
Fruit:
Twin samaras in fall. They form a straight line, unlike most other maple samaras, which form 30-90 degree angles.
Bark/Trunk:
Distinctive, gray-black with pronounced root flare.
Possible
pests/problems: Aphids are probable but controllable. If not controlled, large volumes of honeydew will promote sooty molds. Frost cracks of trunk may develop following fluctuating winter temperatures. Roots have a tendency to girdle the trunk. Roots are shallow and shade is dense, eventually limiting lawn grass under the canopy.
Landscape Value:
Medium to high for flowers, shade and fall color.
Best Advice:
Avoid planting within 6’ of sidewalks, which are commonly lifted as roots expand in diameter. Prune as needed in Nov-Dec to reduce “bleeding” sap that would be more prevalent if pruned in Feb-Mar.
Information source:
Dirr MA, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, 5th Ed 1998
Photos:
Jim Feucht, Robert Cox