Acer platanoides Norway maple

Acer platanoides leaf and samara. From: Howard E. McMinn & Evelyn Maino, An Illustrated Manual of Pacific Coast Trees

Norway maple is native to a broad swath of Europe (fortunately including Norway), extending east through the Caucasus and Anatolia into northern Iran. A closely related species from central Asia is sometimes treated as a subspecies of A. platanoides, bearing the rather awkward name Turkestan Norway maple.

The broad, deeply lobed leaves resemble those of the plane (Platanus), hence the epithet platanoides. Acer pseudoplatanus, no longer present on campus, alludes to the same resemblance. Pluck a leaf and the stalk bleeds milky sap, a useful field mark. Norway maple also puts on a surprisingly showy display of yellow-green flowers before the leaves emerge.

Several trees reach for the sun at the chokepoint of the Clark Center’s narrow inner court. Others on campus are purple-leaved cultivars, possibly ‘Schwedleri’ or related selections, whose foliage often greens somewhat over summer before turning a mottled mix of autumn colors. One survives of a pair south of Cantor Center, near the massive Italian cypress. Three grow at the north tip of the front lawn of The Knoll, and several more are in the courtyard of Lyman Graduate Residences, Building 3.