is this a maple tree?

[maple man-iac]

My yard is peppered with these. I would much rather live in a forest. I'm just not convinced yet that they are maple.7880788178827883notice the round leaf. All pictures are of the same specimen.

[madmapler]

Are there any maples growing in close proximity? I think you can count out sugar or red maples but maybe box elder? I dont know much about them but the round leaf looks like it could be it. It is in the acer family the same as maples. There are some threads on here about tapping them. Maples do tend to spring up everywhere like you describe but I'm sure someone knows more than I do about it. The source must be close by though.

[happy thoughts]

You can't always judge by the leaf shape in such a young seedling but if you look at the last picture, opposite branching is obvious so that and the newer growth leaves imho points to some sort of maple. Only maple, ash, dogwood and horse chestnut trees have opposite branching (MAD Horse is the mnemonic).

Box elder has compound leaves so it's not likely a box elder. Box elder seedlings often look like poison ivy to me until branches have more than 3 compound leaves at least. Leaf edges in your pics are too smooth for red maple. It's hard to tell exactly what kind of maple from such a young seedling. Let some mature and see what the winter buds look like. That should give you a little more info to base an ID on.

[PerryW]

Looks like poison ivy.:o

[Michael Greer]

Nope, not poison Ivy, and not box elder. As the leaves grow a bit bigger this summer you can compare then to mature trees in the neighborhood. Sugar maples and Norway maples tend to sprout a lot of seedlings compared to Silver and Red maples (at least around here). There are also some small ornamental maples being planted by the Village that seem to drop a lot of seed, but they aren't really trees....They're trees but they are miniature trees and so wouldn't make a sugar tree size ever.

[Michael Greer]

You can also be fooled by a small wild grape seedling.

[maple flats]

The first leaf is generally not what is called a "true leaf". When you get to the 3rd or 4th leaf post a picture.

[maple man-iac]

I have noticed seed pods at most of the seedlings. The pods are definitely not hard maple. I have concluded that they are not box elder rather a soft maple of some sort.

[treehugger]

Most likely it is a red maple. I see these all of the time in stands of soft (red) maple.

[adk1]

It doesnt look like the red maple seedlings that I have but one never knows. I can assure you though that you cant tap it haha

[Shawn]

round up material:cool:

[mcsap]

Red maples usually have coarse teeth on the leaf margins. This looks like it might be black maple, they have a smooth margin and usually have 3 lobes.

[MidMichMaple]

My yard is peppered with these. I would much rather live in a forest. I'm just not convinced yet that they are maple.7880788178827883notice the round leaf. All pictures are of the same specimen.

Looks like black maple maybe? Compare it to the pics here: http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/black-maple.php