Weed or plant?

May 9, 2018 6:16 AM

Are these weeds I should be eradicating, trees that might end up being nice at some point with some cultivation, or delightful perennial plants I should leave alone to do their thing?

We moved from a condo to a house this year, and I want to make sure I'm not negligent in maintaining the plant beds in spite of my utter ignorance of such matters. There are something on the order of 50 shoots with leaves that look sort of maple-ish to me (based exclusively on my recollection of the Canadian flag) popping up quite speedily around the yard in a way that makes me suspect they're not supposed to be there.

Will they turn into trees? Is this actually a woody vine that will be impossible to remove if I don't nip it in the bud? Location is northern New Jersey.

posted by willpie to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

almost certainly baby Norway Maple. Terminate without regret. Low quality tree.
posted by JPD at 6:17 AM on May 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

Yep, definitely a Norway maple- that one is a couple of years old. I know because I had one in my yard growing up and it was my childhood chore to pull the sprouts.

They'll be quite hard to yank up if you let them grow over about a foot tall, although it'll take a few more years before they in any way resemble a tree. It's totally ok to pull them up... you'll have lots more soon, those trees are prolific.

(^^ But "low quality"? Disagree- the one in my yard was awesome. But yeah, they are kinda considered invasive).

The really little ones that come up this year will look like this and are very easy to pull up as the roots won't have branched out yet.

It's also going to drop a zillion tiny little chartreuse green flowers everywhere in your yard in late spring, so be ready for that. You don't have to do anything about them.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:56 AM on May 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

norway maples become huge, robust trees that are gorgeous. i grew up with two mature ones in the yard of my childhood home in new jersey. we now have FOUR mature trees surrounding our backyard in virginia and they are excellent shade trees.

ditto removing any unwanted ones before they get too big otherwise they're a pain- mowing will take care of most but they like to hide out in flower beds.
posted by noloveforned at 6:59 AM on May 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Norway maples can be nice shade trees but they give off something that kills the soil around them - it's really hard to grown anything else (grass, flowers, ground covers) under/near them. My front yard is a disaster zone thanks to the Norway maple street trees in front. They're no longer really recommended for planting, at
least in New England. Also, they don't produce either syrup or nice fall leaves, fwiw.
posted by john_snow at 7:13 AM on May 9, 2018

These would be nice for casual bonsai experimentation, if that's at all appealing. Even if you choose to leave one or two of these low quality maples, you should still remove all the rest.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:33 AM on May 9, 2018

More points against Norway maples: their roots grow at the surface of the soil no matter what you do, making underneath the tree not just bare/weedy and dry, but also bumpy and difficult to mow around. I have to hand trim the weeds under mine. And, the syrup from the sap was extremely lousy. When I win the lottery, I'm taking down the one in my yard.
posted by xo at 7:46 AM on May 9, 2018

Nthing that it's an Norway maple. Invasive on the East Coast, but fast-growing if you want to fill the space, with lovely yellow fall color. They've now developed a cultivar that has red undertones, though I still like the classic yellow.

As to downsides -- I have not experienced Norway maples killing other plants around them a la black walnut trees, though. It's more that because of the dense shade they create, you have to careful what you put in -- for example, hostas are standard for their tolerance of deep shade, but you'll need to water them under a Norway maple because the leaves block a lot of rainfall and their mature tree roots are thirsty/take up a lot of space at the surface. Their seeds can clog gutters, and a lot of the mature ones in my area are getting hit hard by maple decline and verticillium wilt.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:50 AM on May 9, 2018

Now would be a good time to talk to your town arborist if there is one, as step 1 of a landscape plan. Things like starting perennial flowers and shrubs (peonies, lilacs) and trees (sugar maple, apple, cherry) have great payback. My Dad planted lots of trees at the house I grew up in, many of them still there, mature, and lovely.
posted by theora55 at 7:57 AM on May 9, 2018

In addition to their quasi invasiveness Norway Maples have very shallow root systems so become tipping risks when mature and tend to form crotches that become limb fall risks.

there is a reason why they are pretty much universally not recommended by professionals.
posted by JPD at 8:04 AM on May 9, 2018

Sooooooooooo maaaaaaaaany seeeeeeeeeds! We have a big Norway in our back yard, and it does provide great shade, but I pull up probably several hundred tiny baby maples every spring from about April through the end of June with a taper all the way through summer. The young trees that do get established are frustratingly hard to deal with, too. Unless you can uproot them almost completely, they'll grow back from a little stub every spring. I'd get them out before they get any bigger.
posted by that's candlepin at 10:03 AM on May 9, 2018

Here's a brief PDF from the state of Pennsylvania, which categorizes the Norway maple as invasive; here's an article from the New York Times. Apparently New Jersey hasn't quite gotten with the program and declared it invasive in the state, but people are trying. Basically they get big and reproduce fast, and they outcompete other trees and shade out smaller flora. They're bad for the local ecosystem and threatening native tree species.

I agree that you should talk to an arborist. If they confirm what it is, they may have a preferred way to eradicate it and offer guidance for what to plant instead.
posted by fedward at 1:58 PM on May 9, 2018