Maple (Acer), fam. Aceraceae.
   Four species grow in eastern Kyiv, with quite dissimilar properties (among them, unexperienced people will not even relate Tatar maple and Boxelder maple to maples).

   Norway Maple (Acer platanoides).
   This is the most common maple, abundant both in the city and in the forest, including the most remote places, where in the late spring their seedlings form continuous mass of shoots, which is rare for trees (however, only few of them usually survive). It flowers in April with umbellate odorless inflorescences, which are though not very bright but original. In autumn, Norway maple is one of the most beautiful trees, especially some its exemplars, particularly one that grows together with oaks in the middle of the "cross-road" in the forest. Young leaves are soft and even edible, but then they harden and acquire bitterness, which is typical for other maple species.
   Possibly, apart from this species, another one close to it grows in Kyiv – the Sycamore Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) – unfortunately, there has not been found any clear method to distinguish it.

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