Four leaf... maple?

[jeanluc83]

I came across this leaf on the red maple that I collected this spring. Has anyone else seen a maple leaf like this?

The first picture shows the four lobe maple leaf.

The second is a normal leaf from the same tree.

 

[Smoke]

looks like liquid amber of some kind

 

[Martin Sweeney]

jeanluc83,

I used to have an Acer rubrum. The first year after collection, when the tree pushed extremely rapid growth, it did the same thing. Once the tree returns to normal growth, they will stop appearing. It is a temporary thing.

Regards,
Martin

 

[raydomz]

Very cool looking either way!
I've seen these appear on my mountain maple, no worry.

 

[daygan]

looks like liquid amber of some kind

nah... those leaves are definitely opposite. Liquidambar leaves are alternate. I only know this because because back in 2011 I was banging my head against a wall trying to figure out what the heck kind of maple I was seeing with both two and four-lobed (or 3 & 5, depending on what you call a lobe) leaves in the mountains of zhejiang, when someone pointed out that maples don't have alternate leaves, but liquidambar do.

 

[jeanluc83]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn’t too worried about the leaves. I was more curious if anyone else had seen something similar.

The first year after collection, when the tree pushed extremely rapid growth, it did the same thing.

It makes sense that you might get some weird things from the first push of growth. The tree wants to survive it doesn’t care if the leaves are pretty or not. Much of the early growth was not as well ordered as what grew later.

 

[jk_lewis]

Look up Acer negundo - box elder or ash-leafed maple.

 

[jeanluc83]

Look up Acer negundo - box elder or ash-leafed maple.

There was one growing behind a place I was renting in college. I remember it being very fast growing but ugly.