It's a fast moving forum today, I don't know the answer to your question but you might try this key. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Maple Key

Thanks Jeanne, I wasn't able to definitively match up the leaves and samaras. It's close to one type but the number of lobes on the leaves are different.

Red maple, Acer rubrum.

WW

weedwoman, that's what I thought it was not sure. My friend (whose tree it is) is afraid it's a Norway maple. I didn't think it was because the Norway maple has 5 lobes in the leaves, and the samaras have a kind of upswing to them, if that makes sense.

Thanks!

weedwoman, I just googled a bit and the samaras on the red maple are more inverted v-shape. Do you have a link to a red maple that looks like my photos?

Thanks!

Acer rubrum link

HTH
Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Acer rubrum

It is NOT a Norway maple.

To reassure your friend, break a leaf stalk in the middle and look at it. White sap would ooze out of the Norway maple. Other maples do not have the milky sap. You should not see any milky sap on yours.

Thank you Chris, that's perfect! I don't know why I didn't find that one with my googling. My friend was afraid she'd have to get rid of her trees if they were Norway maple due to their invasiveness. Now I can reassure her that they aren't the Norways, although personally I consider all maples a pain in the neck when it comes to seedlings.

If it doesn't seem a perfect example of red maple jagged leaf edges might perhaps indicate it's actually one of the commonly planted hybrids with silver maple belonging to Acer x freemanii. Possibly this might also have some bearing on the orientation of the fruits. I'd have to compare it with other examples to check this myself.

naturegirl 2007, thanks for the tip on the milky sap, I didn't know about that.

bboy, would the fact that it is a new tree and light green brand new leaves (the leaves just developed this week) have something to do with the leaf edges looking different from a typical red maple?