Maple ID by leaf

Dat der be sugar maple! Good stuff fo sho!

You'll need to upload a bark pic to give anyone a chance at guessing. There are at least a couple dozen species of maple.

Except Norway and sugar maple leaves look alot alike. Sugar maple leaves should have turned by now and Norway leaves are one of the last to go. If you just took that picture (in Michigan) you most likely are looking at Norway maple.

Jeff2009 said:

Picture was taken about a month ago now. All leaves are of these tree now and have been for a week or two.

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Norway leaves are wider than they are tall. I dont think this is a Norway. Ive cut about 6 or 7 Norways down this year trying to get them out of an area where they are taking over.

As long as it's not silver maple it's all pretty decent burning firewood.

Norway maple seeds are almost 180 degrees, sugar maple seeds droop next to each other.

BTW Silver Maple may not last as long as others but it splits well, dries quickly, and burns hot. If I find it on a scrounge, I grab it!

I think it looks like Sugar, break a leaf stem, if the sap is milky white its Norway maple.(only maple you dont want to tap for syrup)
The second picture(Ralphie) is probably Black maple (some people dont recognize it as seperate from Sugar)
Black is more common out toward Ohio.
Check the sap, or pull a leaf off a branch.
All my leaves are off trees now, even the Oaks. Dry fall I guess. Last year it snowed with half the leaves still on trees.
Another thing, Sugar maple leaves look delicate and fragile, where Black maple and Norway are kind of leathery looking.

Can you take a picture of the pictures in your ID book?
Dont go by Google unless its a forestry college or something.

That looks like a pretty standard Sugar Maple leaf. Norway is similar, but typically wider than long, as somebody pointed out. Norway maples have bark that looks like Ash bark.

Other native maples are Red, Silver, and Black. This is none of those. There are also Striped maple and Mountain Maple, but those are small trees and have leaves not similar to these.

Jeff2009 said:

Actually with maples you can tell more by the leaf cause the bark varies so much for each species and location

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I've learned something today. I really didn't think it was that easy or simple, but I'll take your word for it. I'm still very much an amateur dendrologist!

Basic easy way to identify Sugar Maple

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Sugar-Maple-Trees

I don't mean to highjack this thread but John's link got me doubting. I was sure I was burning silver maple shown in these pictures. And I was so impressed with the burn times!!

Here is the other side

Another vote for sugar maple. If the samara were in the pic it would be another good clue - as Baseroom mentioned, sugar maple would be horseshoe shaped, Norway would look like a coat hanger. And as TheAardvark mentioned, leaf width kinda points to sugar maple vs Norway too