What are the ways to tell Japanese maple and sweetgum apart

Japanese maple and sweetgum are often confused because their leaf shapes are similar and their tree forms resemble each other. In fact, these two tree species are easy to tell apart in the following ways:

1. Tree form: although both are deciduous trees, Japanese maple reaches only 15 m, with a broad, spreading form. Sweetgum reaches up to 40 m, with a conical form.

2. Leaves: the leaves of both Japanese maple and sweetgum are 5- to 7-lobed palmate leaves, each lobe acuminate with sharp teeth, and the leaf surface is green and smooth. The former has tufts of hair in the vein axils on the underside of the leaf, and in autumn the leaves turn red, orange or yellow, and are opposite; the latter has no hairs on the underside of the leaf, and in autumn the leaves turn orange to red or purple, and are alternate.

3. Bark: the bark of Japanese maple is smooth, while the bark of sweetgum has deep fissures and narrow ridges.

4. Flowers: Japanese maple flowers are small, red-purple, in upright or drooping corymbs, opening in spring at the same time as the young leaves. Sweetgum is monoecious, with very small, yellow-green flowers without petals, opening in late spring at the same time as the leaves.

5. Fruit: the fruit of Japanese maple has green to red wings, up to 1 cm long. The fruit of sweetgum is a single small fruit, brown, in drooping round fruit clusters, 4 cm in diameter.

6. Habitat: Japanese maple grows in thickets, while sweetgum grows in moist forests. Japanese maple is native to China, Japan and Korea. Sweetgum is native to Mexico, Central America and the eastern United States.