Acer

Amur maple (Acer ginnala, accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online as Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala) is a small, fast-growing deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub from northeastern Asia - the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea. At 15 to 20 feet it fits where a full-size maple cannot, and it earns that place with three seasons of interest: fragrant greenish-yellow flowers in spring, which is an unusual scent for a maple and an early nectar source for bees; small glossy three-lobed leaves through summer; and reliable, often brilliant red-to-orange fall color that arrives early. It is also one of the hardiest maples, tolerant of cold, wind, dry soil, and a wide range of pH. The honest catch, and it is a serious one for North American gardeners, is that it self-sows prolifically and has escaped cultivation to become invasive across parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, where its shade-tolerant seedlings crowd native shrubs and understory trees in open woods, savannas, and prairies. Several states list it as invasive or a noxious weed. Check your local invasive-species list before planting, and be prepared to remove seedlings if you do.

Boxelder (Acer negundo) is the maple that does not look like a maple. Instead of a single lobed leaf it carries compound leaves of three to five toothed leaflets, close enough to poison ivy that people regularly misidentify young shoots, and it is one of the very few dioecious maples - male and female flowers on separate trees, so only the females carry the familiar paired samaras. It is native across an extraordinary sweep of North America, from Maine to Manitoba and south to Florida, Texas and central Mexico, and it is genuinely at home on riverbanks and floodplains where its speed and flood tolerance are assets. In a garden it is usually a volunteer rather than a choice. It grows fast, breaks in storms, seeds everywhere, and hosts the boxelder bug, which overwinters on house walls in numbers that make it a household nuisance rather than a garden one. The case for it is narrow but real: it establishes on ground where better trees fail, in cold northern climates and on raw disturbed sites, and it is a documented larval host for cecropia and a valued early honey-bee forage.

Britain's only native maple and one of Europe's most genuinely useful small trees - a tough, modest, rounded-crowned species native across Europe, north-west Africa and south-west Asia (POWO). Where its relative the sycamore sprawls and self-seeds aggressively, the field maple stays compact, well-behaved and not invasive, shrugging off dry, chalky, alkaline and clay soils, exposure and urban pollution. Small five-lobed leaves turn a clear butter-yellow (sometimes flushed red) in autumn, the corky-winged twigs give winter character, and the small green flowers feed bees in spring. The honest pitch: not a showy specimen, but a dependable, wildlife-friendly workhorse for small gardens, hedges and street plantings on the difficult soils where flashier maples sulk.

A refined small deciduous tree from the mountains of Japan, Manchuria, and Korea, grown above all for its nearly round, many-lobed leaves and its brilliant red-orange autumn color. It builds slowly to a rounded, spreading 15 to 30 feet, carrying small reddish-purple flowers in spring before the foliage hardens. A classic specimen and dappled-shade understory tree that resents hot, dry, windy sites; not native to North America.

A deciduous small tree or large shrub from Japan and Korea, grown above all for its delicate palmate leaves - five to seven (rarely nine) pointed, toothed lobes - and its sculptural branching. It reaches 10 to 25 feet over decades, carries insignificant reddish-purple flowers in April, and finishes the season in shades of yellow, red-purple, and bronze. A classic specimen and dappled-shade understory tree; not native to North America.

Norway maple (Acer platanoides) is a dense, symmetrical European shade tree that was planted across North American towns and streets for most of the twentieth century, largely as a replacement for elms lost to Dutch elm disease. Plotwright does not recommend planting it in North America. It is listed as a noxious weed across the Midwest, banned or restricted in a growing number of states, and Missouri Botanical Garden flags it outright as not recommended for planting: it seeds prolifically, and the seedlings carpet woodland floors and displace native understory. The traits that make it a problem are the same ones that made it popular. It leafs out earlier and holds its leaves later than the natives around it, casting shade in the shoulder seasons when spring ephemerals need light, and it pairs that dense canopy with a shallow, greedy root system, so very little will grow beneath it. It is genuinely handsome, genuinely tough in compacted urban soil, and reliably golden in autumn. In Europe, where it belongs, it is a fine tree. In North America, plant a sugar maple, red maple or a native oak instead and you get the same shade without handing the local woodland a decades-long problem.

Paperbark maple is a small, slow-growing deciduous tree native to central China (Hubei, Sichuan, Gansu, and neighboring provinces), where it is now considered Endangered in the wild by the IUCN. In gardens it earns its keep on three fronts: cinnamon-orange bark that peels in papery curls year-round, brilliant scarlet-orange autumn foliage, and a compact scale (20 to 30 feet) that fits suburban lots. The honest catch is propagation scarcity - most seeds are parthenocarpic (empty), so named nursery stock is expensive and sometimes undersized for its price; patience is required both at the nursery counter and in the garden, as it grows at less than 12 inches per year.

The most widely distributed deciduous tree in eastern North America and one of the few that thrives across a 7,000-foot elevation range from Newfoundland to Florida. Earliest spring bloom of any eastern hardwood (January-March in NC) gives early-emerging bees their first nectar source; brilliant red fall color is the species's headline, but the timing varies tree-to-tree - making cultivars with named selections ('October Glory', 'Red Sunset') the reliable design choice for guaranteed display.

Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) is a fast, very large deciduous tree of eastern and central North American floodplains, and one of the most widely planted - and most regretted - shade trees on the continent. It earns its name from the silvery-white undersides of its deeply cut leaves, which flash when wind turns them, and it earns its reputation from everything else: it can add three feet a year and reach 50 to 80 feet, but the wood is brittle and sheds limbs in storms, and the shallow roots lift sidewalks, heave lawns and find their way into drain lines. It is also the earliest maple to flower, opening dense red-tinged clusters in late winter well before the leaves, which makes it a genuinely important first nectar and pollen source for bees in a month when almost nothing else is open. Plant it where those trade-offs are acceptable - a big damp low spot, a riverbank, a rural windbreak - and it is superb. Plant it beside a driveway and you will be negotiating with it for decades.

The Canadian flag tree and the foundation of the eastern North American maple syrup industry - and one of the most reliably beautiful fall-color trees in the temperate world, with brilliant red, orange, and yellow leaves often on the same canopy. Slower-growing than red maple but longer-lived (200-300 years in optimal sites) with denser shade and superior wood. Intolerant of compacted soil, road salt, and high heat - site away from streets and parking lots.

A large, fast-growing deciduous maple reaching roughly 60 to 90 feet with a broad, domed crown, big five-lobed leaves, and the maple's signature paired winged samaras. Its honest virtue is toughness: it shrugs off wind, salt spray, and air pollution better than almost any other large tree, which has long made it a classic coastal and exposed-site shelterbelt. Its honest liability is that it self-seeds aggressively - outside its native montane range it has naturalised so freely that it is widely regarded as an invasive weed tree (notably across Britain and in parts of North America), with seedlings appearing everywhere. Native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and the Caucasus (POWO), it is best reserved for exposed, salt-laden, or polluted sites where its resilience earns its keep and where its prolific seeding is acceptable - and never near horse paddocks, because its seeds and seedlings are toxic to horses.

Trident maple is a small to medium deciduous tree native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, grown for its distinctive three-lobed glossy leaves, exfoliating orange-brown bark on mature specimens, and reliable orange-red autumn colour. It adapts well to urban conditions - pollution, compacted soil, restricted root space - and is a premier bonsai subject. The honest catch is its shallow, spreading root system: surface roots can buckle pavements and lift lawn edges within a few decades, so site it well clear of hard surfacing or install root barriers from the outset.

A Pacific Northwest native small maple of understory + woodland-edge habitats producing rounded palmate leaves with brilliant red-orange fall color + a delicate multi-stemmed shrubby-to-small-tree habit. Native to the Cascade + Coast Range forests; thrives in cool moist Pacific Northwest conditions where eastern maples struggle. Among the most graceful native ornamental small trees for shaded gardens.