field maple in hedgerows ?

whiteflower

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The threads relating to the sad cases of people losing horses/horses being very poorly due to atypical myopathy has prompted me to have a good check of our hedgerows at the yard.

hedgerows are predominantly hawthorn and hazel but i have also found what i believe to be field maple. i have identified it from comparing the leaf shape with pictures on the internet and it is identical to a field maple leaf so im pretty sure.

there is not much information on this in relation to horses that i can find online, im hoping this is because its ok for them ?!

anyone better with horticulture than me, am i ok leaving in the hedgerows ? just concerned due to the similarities between it and sycamore.

thank you to those that have managed to share their stories and i am sorry for all those that have lost loved horses
 

cambrica

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A sycamore is an Acer - as is a Maple.
It's the same genus species but I would have no idea as to whether they have the same toxicity levels. I would phone Kew gardens - they know everything !
 

Adopter

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Research I have read does not list Field Maples as toxic for horses, in fact it is listed as part of horse friendly hedging.

I have field maples in my paddock and they are not the same as sycamores, which are currently named as a source of toxins. The leaf of Field Maples have similarities to Sycamore but is not the same.

So at present I am not going to do anything about the Field Maples. I spent the autumn worrying about acorns, but I will watch to see if any of the advice or information changes current advice or information.
 

mandwhy

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Field maple had often been recommended as a good shelter tree. I found this info which may put your mind at ease

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...hr0tY7Zc3JDPFMyCw&sig2=qvYxVqcBMNPZkTeU_Uw4nA

It is hypoglycin A that seems to be the problem and is highly variable between sycamore trees anyway, it depends on the conditions as to how much would be in the seeds etc.

If you had the facilities to test for this in your own sycamore trees I dare say you could predict the risk to horses.

The info above says that field maple seeds were tested among other Acer species and they did not contain hypoglycin A.
 

Old Bat

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This is really useful, thank you. I nearly lost a mare many years ago to an at the time unknown illness which I have since realised must have been atypical myopathy and at the time she was in a field with a socking great sycamore tree in it. OH and I were just talking about this the other day and worrying about the maples that we have around, and today's job was to do some research into the similarities and possible poison risks!

Edited to add OH has just said that dried red maple leaves are also poisonous to horses.
 
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whiteflower

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thank you for the replys, ive done some more internet searching and a bhs information sheet i found says field maple is a good hedge plant for horses, my concern is how old the leaflet is and if there have been any further advances since it came out ?

old bat - yes the leaves of the red maple certainly are toxic to horses and its a good link to make people aware. im sure mine is field maple not red maple as leaves dont go red so im wondering if field maple is therefore ok ?

mandwhy - the info in that link seems to think its ok, im just dithering as i want to be sure. im happy to remove it if necessary but i think the consensus is that its ok.
 
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