How can I tell the difference between a sugar maple and an invasive Norway maple when the tree is young?
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Just break off a leaf at the node. If the sap is viscous and white, it's a Norway maple.
They have two different types of leaves. Learn to know them. do a google image search for both, so you know the difference between the two. They also turn different colors in the fall. I do not think the Norway Maple is as invasive as the swamp maple.
The sugar maple leaves turn anywhere from orange, pinkish-scarlet, to true golden color in the fall. The Norway maple (which is practically indestructible, I might add) sort of turns a dried up, ugly brown, if it turns color at all.
I've noticed that the leaves of seedlings of Norways are very dark (on the upper sides) like their parents. Sugars are not as dark.
Even young, spindly sugar maples in the wild do not have the characteristic dark (almost pine-colored) green of the Norway maples. They have a much more lemon-lime, neutral green color.
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