Evergreen means that a tree will maintain its green foliage through the year. It will shed its leaves, but the shedding process is not all at once to where the tree will be noticeably bare of leaves.
The majority of maple trees are not evergreen. Rather, they are deciduous trees that will completely lose their leaves during a certain time each year. In North America, this typically means sometime in the fall as cooler temperatures move in. The tree will remain free of leaves until spring when temperatures warm.
Science Daily reports that there are some maples in the Mediterranean and southern Asia regions that are evergreen. One example is the Evergreen Maple (Acer oblongum) that is native the Himalayas, India, Pakistan, and other nearby countries. California Polytechnic State University indicates that this tree is evergreen to semi-deciduous.
If you view a picture of the Evergreen Maple on the university’s website (click here), you can see the glossy leaves of this tree are not similar to the broader and rougher maple leaves that most readers are likely familiar with, as pictured below.
However, there are approximately 130 species of maple trees in the world that each take on their own characteristics. Think of how different a Japanese maple can be from a sugar maple, for example.
While most maples lose their leaves, there is a ton of variation in other areas such as size, growing conditions, and best climate for growth. Be sure to take your time to research maples if you plan on purchasing one. The best maple for yard is not necessarily sitting at the nearest garden nursery.