Norway Maple

Norway maple is one of my favourite trees. This tree is beautiful in a handsome way, has very dense foliage and a magnificent yellow cluster of flowers what show them selves in the beginning of winter and early spring.

Some of the cultivated varieties are available with a very distinct leaf colour (purple, red, bronze, maroon, orange, etc.

There are some Maples what are known as shrubs, these don’t usually grow more than 10 metres and they have a number of small trunks growing at ground level. The maple tree we have in the local park where I live is about 45 meters (145 ft

The seeds are called”maple keys". These seeds are in pairs each containing one seed enclosed in a small pouch called a nutlet witch is connected to a flattened wing of fibrous, very thin paper like tissue. They are shaped like a propeller to make them spin as they fall and can carry the seeds quite a distance especially when there’s a wind.

When we were kids, we called them "helicopters". One single tree can release hundreds of the seeds at a time and some can remain dormant in the soil for several years before germinating.

Norway maple tree