Identification: Help Identify Maple

Does anyone know what kind of Maple tree this is. There are two of them growing in the park across the street from my house. I think it's a non native maple tree.

Thanks for helping identify it.

Chris

 

My first guess is Norway Maple, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_platanoides

 

Thanks for the reply. I thought of Norway Maple, because I know it grows here, but I know of another Maple tree a few blocks away on Ellesmere Avenue that has much darker green leaves, and who's owner says it is a Norway Maple. It could be that she's mistaken, or maybe there are different cultivars of Norway Maple growing here. There are also two other large non native maples up the street on Ellesmere growing side by side that have a similar shape with one having light green leaves and the other dark green.

 

Norway maple.

 

Another ditto to Norway Maple.

The species has numerous cultivars including some with dark purple / black leaves; seedlings of these often come up dark green, which could be what the darker Ellesmere Avenue specimens are.

 

Green named forms described as darker green by nurseries occur. Greenness will also vary with site conditions, same as with other green plants.

 

Thanks everybody. I actually got a small seedling of this tree by mistake from underneath a beaked hazelnut. I had been planning all winter to get one of the suckers growing from the beaked hazelnut in mid march, but I injured my right knee on march 1st and wasn't able to get one.

By the time I was able to walk again, a neighbor had decided to tidy up the park while I was recovering, including cutting down all the suckers growing from the beaked hazelnut, as well as pruning the tree itself.

I saw another tiny tree that hadn't opened it's leaves yet, growing under the beaked hazelnut, so with the help of my wife we dug it up and brought it home. A couple of weeks later the leaves opened up and I could tell it wasn't a beaked hazelnut, but a maple growing from a tree a few feet away.

On April 26th, I went back and got two softwood cuttings from one of the suckers that was starting to grow back, and a few days later I got five hardwood cuttings from the tree, all while fixing pruning mistakes made by the neighbor.

All seven cuttings are still alive. One of the two softwood cuttings is growing, and three of the five hardwood cuttings are growing very well. I don't know how they will do in the long run, but if anyone has an opinion on this I'd like to hear it.

Chris