Norway maple (Acer platanoides): what the forestry bodies record

This page reports what forestry bodies say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. Each fact names its source, all read on October 9, 2026. The agency records for the maple it is most often compared with in Britain are on the sycamore maple page.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name and family	Acer platanoides, family Sapindaceae (Woodland Trust)
Origin	Non-native in Britain, introduced in 1683 (Forest Research). Forest Research files it as Norway maple with the code NOM and calls it a Secondary tree species.
Height	Up to 25 m (Woodland Trust)
Rainfall, exposure, shade	More than 1,200 mm of rain preferred; moderately tolerant of exposure; not shade tolerant (Forest Research key properties)

Range

Forest Research calls it the most widespread of the European native maples, ranging from Scandinavia to the Pyrenees and east to the Ural Mountains, usually in mixed lowland forests. EUFORGEN, the European forest genetic resources programme, gives the same spread from the Balkans and the Pyrenees to southern Fennoscandia and the Urals, and says it is not native to Denmark, western France, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. Forest Research says it has been widely planted in Britain, mainly known for horticultural interest, and has become naturalised in some areas. It names the cultivars Drummondii, with variegated leaves, and Crimson King, with purple almost black leaves, as frequent in parks and gardens. The Woodland Trust says it is the most common tree in Toronto, Canada.

Site and soil

Forest Research says the tree is cold hardy throughout Britain but less tolerant of exposure than sycamore. Annual rainfall across its natural distribution runs from 600 to 1,600 mm, with best growth above 1,200 mm. It grows on a wide range of soils and best on deep, fresh to moist, free-draining soils of medium to rich nutrient status, appears more tolerant of drier sites than sycamore, and can grow on alkaline soils. It is not suited to very poor soils or waterlogged ground such as peat. The entry calls it relatively tolerant of pollution, and EUFORGEN says it tolerates shade, drought and pollution and grows from sea level to 1,400 m. EUFORGEN also says it can be an aggressive invader in deciduous forests, outcompeting native vegetation.

Leaves and flowers

The Woodland Trust describes grey bark with fine ridges, and slender brown twigs with tiny white spots. Leaves are palmate with five lobes and a few pointed teeth, dark green fading to yellow and occasionally red. Leaf stalks ooze a milky sap when squeezed. Bright green flowers grow in clusters of up to 30, and the winged seeds fall in autumn. It says the angle of the paired seeds is wider than in sycamore. Forest Research says the tree produces good seed crops from 20 to 25 years of age.

Growth, wood and wildlife

Forest Research says it grows fast for the first 30 to 40 years, can suppress other species in close mixtures, and is not as long-lived as sycamore. On good sites trees of 40 cm diameter at breast height can be grown in around 40 years. The Woodland Trust says the timber is similar to sycamore, hard, strong and pale cream, used for furniture and turnery, but not often grown commercially because of bark stripping by grey squirrels. Moth caterpillars feed on the leaves, flowers give nectar and pollen to bees, and birds and small mammals eat the seeds. It adds that like other maples it can be tapped for syrup.

Pests and diseases the sources name

Forest Research says Norway maple, like sycamore, is affected by various leaf spot and blotch diseases and is reported to be especially vulnerable to Verticillium wilt, with root diseases caused by Phytophthora and Armillaria, also called honey fungus. It is vulnerable to bark stripping by grey squirrels, and horse chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella, has occasionally damaged it, particularly where planted close to horse chestnut. The Woodland Trust adds horse chestnut scale insect. This site profiles tar spot of maple, cottony maple scale and the horse chestnut leaf miner from other sources.

Text on Forest Research is adapted from its tree species database entry and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.