Maple Identification

[Pals_id]

Hello,

Yesterday I noticed that a lot of small maple seedlings were popping up around my yard. Some are from the side neighbors tree and some are from across the street. The ones from next door are certainly red maple, but I am not sure what kind of maple is growing across from me. At first I thought possibly silver maple, as I live in Michigan and they are common here. But the more pictures I look at, I am thinking it may be some type of trident maple. I took 12 seedlings of the maple in question and 12 seedlings of the red maple and put them in a window type growing container to see how they do. I will attach a couple pictures. All opinions are welcome.
Thank you

 

[barrosinc]

amur maple (acer ginnala)?

 

[rockm]

Barrosinc is right. Amur maple is a good bet. It's an invasive species in your state
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/amurmaple.html

 

[Pals_id]

Thank you for the quick response. How large do those maples usually get? The two in the neighbors front yard are huge. I didn't want to be a creeper and stand in my front yard taking pictures of his house, but was able to get a somewhat decent shot from the front window behind a large juniper hedge...which may be slightly less creepy or at least less noticeable. I also took a picture of a couple of the seeds that blew into my yard recently. Does this change or confirm amur maple?

 

[rockm]

I can't tell from the photos, but I don't think they're the same tree. Amur is not a primary tree. It is more shrub-like. I think what you've got pics of is either red maple (Acer rubrum) or Norway Maple.

 

[Oliver Muscio]

Those seeds look like silver maple. The seeds of red maple are smaller than what we see here. Silver maples and red maples are said to be the only maples that mature and drop their seeds in the spring. The other maples, including Norway maples, release their mature seeds in the fall, to sprout the following spring. So this cannot be Norway maple.
Oliver

 

[skrit]

I agree. The seeds/tree in your neighbor's yard are almost certainly silver maple. Not certain about the seedlings though.

 

[whfarro]

It definitely looks like silver maple to me. I have several in my yard.

 

[Pals_id]

Thanks for the input. Alright, I am leaning to these being silver maple again. From what I understand, they do not make very good bonsai, but I will try to grow them out a bit just for fun. I think the other seedlings are red maple and those may give me something decent to work with in time.

 

[Dav4]

Could be Amur, but you really won't be able to tell until the seedlings are older

Thanks for the input. Alright, I am leaning to these being silver maple again. From what I understand, they do not make very good bonsai, but I will try to grow them out a bit just for fun. I think the other seedlings are red maple and those may give me something decent to work with in time.

Fwiw, sometimes the foliage on seedlings isn't similar to that of the parent tree until it's grown out for a season or two.

 

[discusmike]

They look like the silvers growing like weeds all around my yard.

 

[Eric Group]

It is a silver- seeds confirm it and the leaves look nothing like Red Maple Seedlings.

 

[Pals_id]

It is a silver- seeds confirm it and the leaves look nothing like Red Maple Seedlings.

I agree with the ones I did a close up on, but the other half of the growing container had other maple seedlings that I think are red maple. I could always be mistaken though. Here is a close up of one of them. I know they are some sort of maple because they are growing out of my gutters like crazy directly under the parent tree forming the maple seeds. I really have to clean my gutters! The seeds are much smaller than the silver maple seeds. What do you think?

 

[Eric Group]

I agree with the ones I did a close up on, but the other half of the growing container had other maple seedlings that I think are red maple. I could always be mistaken though. Here is a close up of one of them. I know they are some sort of maple because they are growing out of my gutters like crazy directly under the parent tree forming the maple seeds. I really have to clean my gutters! The seeds are much smaller than the silver maple seeds. What do you think?

View attachment 75950

There you go- those look more like Rubrum. Not quite like the one a I get here, but I know there are multiple different types of Rubrum- northern and southern varieties.. Obviously there are landscape/ nursery made/ named cultivars as well (most of them called like "Autumn Fire" or something all Sexy sounding like that..) But from seed... Probably just "Rubrum" is as accurate as you can get... Like the cultivars of JM, I doubt the named cultivars/ hybrids come true from seed.

The seeds you showed were certainly not Rubrum thin, they looked like a Silver Maple. We just had a thread about this recently as I had a few of those big white seeds drop in my yard for the first time this year. I thought it was Sugar Maple at first, but the seed pod of the Sugar Maple seed is a dark green with the big white wings, and I think the overall size is a little smaller. One of the seeds sprouted and Iw as letting it grow in my garden... But my little bunny friend decided to make it lunch one day. Not sure if it will survive or not.

 

[Pals_id]

I am thinking maybe box elder maple too now that I look at more pictures. I never knew what kind of bugs they were until I was on Google yesterday and they usually take over that side of the house in the fall. That is what is so great about this hobby. I have been living here for about 10 years and never really paid attention to what these things were that live around my house.