Can you tap a norway maple for syrup?

Yes, with caveats. Tappable and surprisingly sweet, but stingy with sap — and an invasive you shouldn't plant. Its sap sugar is about 2.2–2.8% in a two-year Utah study — close to sugar maple.

How much norway maple sap makes a gallon of syrup?

About 31 to 39 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup at its usual 2.2–2.8% sap sugar, by the updated Rule of 86. In an Ontario study, a taste panel picked Norway and sugar maple syrup almost equally. Expect low volume: Utah trees gave only about 2–2.5 gallons (7.5–9.3 L) of sap per tree per season.

When do you tap a norway maple?

Tap it alongside your other maples; in the Utah study the season ran about five to six weeks, from late February or early March into early April. It leafs out early in spring, so watch for bud swell.

Acer platanoides

Can you tap a norway maple?

Short answer

Fair, lower yield

Yes, with caveats. Tappable and surprisingly sweet, but stingy with sap — and an invasive you shouldn't plant.

Sap sugar: 2.2–2.8%
Sap : syrup: 31–39 : 1

Norway maple trunk in late winter with gray bark in tight, shallow, interlacing ridges — Photo: Wilhelm Zimmerling PAR, CC BY-SA 4.0

Norway maple twig in February with a fat, blunt, maroon terminal bud and a pair of plump side buds — Photo: MurielBendel, CC BY-SA 4.0

Side-by-side leaves: a matte sugar maple leaf on the left and a wider, glossy Norway maple leaf with long pointed lobe tips on the right — Photo: Gilles Ayotte (Université Laval botanical collection), CC BY-SA 4.0

Open-grown Norway maple with a dense, rounded crown in yellow-orange fall color — Photo: Włodzimierz Wysocki, CC BY-SA 3.0

Leaf-off ID

Identify it in winter

01Opposite branching with stout brown twigs.
02Big, fat, turban-shaped buds that start green and mature to reddish-purple — sugar maple's are slim, sharp and brown.
03Bark is gray-brown with tight, shallow, interlacing ridges — a tidy crosshatch, not curling plates.
04Winged seeds spread almost flat, like a handlebar mustache, and often hang on into winter.
05Usually a yard or street tree with a dense, rounded crown; it holds its leaves later in fall than most native trees.

In summer

Leaves have 5–7 lobes ending in long, pointed teeth, and are usually wider than they are long.
Snap a leaf stem: milky white sap means Norway maple. Native maples bleed clear.
Turns yellow in fall. The dark-purple ‘Crimson King’ is a Norway maple too.

Easily confused with

Sugar maple →

Slim, sharp brown buds; bark in plates that curl outward; clear sap from the leaf stem; seeds that hang down in a horseshoe.

London planetree

Maple-shaped leaves on a similar big street tree, but its branching is alternate — every maple is opposite.

Sap sugar: About 2.2–2.8% in a two-year Utah study — close to sugar maple
Season: Tap it alongside your other maples; in the Utah study the season ran about five to six weeks, from late February or early March into early April. It leafs out early in spring, so watch for bud swell.
Syrup: In an Ontario study, a taste panel picked Norway and sugar maple syrup almost equally. Expect low volume: Utah trees gave only about 2–2.5 gallons (7.5–9.3 L) of sap per tree per season.
Range: Native to continental Europe and western Asia. Planted and naturalized from New Brunswick west to Minnesota and south to Tennessee and North Carolina, plus British Columbia, Washington, Idaho and Montana — invasive in many areas.

Tapping it?

Sources · 8

1.Sap Yield and Sugar Content of Boxelder and Norway Maple Trees in Northern Utah (HortTechnology 34(1), 2024) · Utah State University / American Society for Horticultural Science
2.North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, 2nd ed. (Bulletin 856) — Ch. 3 “The Maple Resource” and Ch. 7 “Rule of 86” · Ohio State University Extension with the North American Maple Syrup Council
3.Norway maple (Acer platanoides) — Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet · Virginia Tech Dendrology (Dept. of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation)
4.Norway Maple · University of Maryland Extension
5.Acer platanoides, Norway maple — Fire Effects Information System (Munger 2003) · USDA Forest Service

Show 3 more

6.Distinguishing Between Norway, Sugar, and Black Maples · Purdue University Extension
7.Producing Maple Syrup From Boxelder and Norway Maple Trees · Utah State University Extension
8.Identifying Maple Trees (Maple Toolkit) · Ohio State University Extension — Ohio Woodland Stewards

FAQ

Norway maple questions

Can you tap a norway maple for syrup?: Yes, with caveats. Tappable and surprisingly sweet, but stingy with sap — and an invasive you shouldn't plant. Its sap sugar is about 2.2–2.8% in a two-year Utah study — close to sugar maple.
How much norway maple sap makes a gallon of syrup?: About 31 to 39 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup at its usual 2.2–2.8% sap sugar, by the updated Rule of 86. In an Ontario study, a taste panel picked Norway and sugar maple syrup almost equally. Expect low volume: Utah trees gave only about 2–2.5 gallons (7.5–9.3 L) of sap per tree per season.
When do you tap a norway maple?: Tap it alongside your other maples; in the Utah study the season ran about five to six weeks, from late February or early March into early April. It leafs out early in spring, so watch for bud swell.

Tree ID