Yes, weedsday; you read that right. Norway maples, Acer platanoides, Toronto’s most dominant (in so many senses) street tree. You can’t garden in Toronto, especially its east end, without grappling with these non-native giants; trees that are as voracious as they are fecund.
But, gee, they have pretty flowers. They’re all chartreuse and fluffy-y. From certain angles, they catch the light and seem illuminated.
A soft, green, billowing cloud of bright maple flowers. Each one of them just itching to ripen into a very viable fruit and plant itself in a garden, or a fence, or a hedge, or a ravine, or, what the heck, all four and more, near you.
I’ve written about my love/hate for Norway maples before; here in 2007 and again here in 2009. I’ll probably be writing about them in 2011 and beyond. They are my beautiful bane.
Fortunately, the seedlings are also very easy to pull up, if you catch them now when they’ve just germinated. Don’t let them go too long, though. Those innocent-looking roots get tenacious pretty quickly.
2 comments
I'm also picking maple seedlings out of EVERYWHERE in my garden. It's not a Norway, but a 100 year old red maple. Beautiful most of the time – just don't like all those sprouted keys.
Sadly most of our stately sugar maples are being removed here in Dunnville, The Norway are being planted every where now. I wish that habit would stop and plant again our Ontario Natives