Is an amur maple a good tree to plant in Indiana?
Amur Maple can work here, with caveats. Planted in central Indiana landscapes and fully hardy here, and formally listed as invasive by both the Wisconsin and Minnesota DNRs. Its specific Indiana regulatory or watch-list status is UNVERIFIED — it was not found among the 44 species prohibited under Indiana's Terrestrial Plant Rule, unlike tree-of-heaven, which is on that list; Callery pear is not on it either, despite how often people assume otherwise. Confirm before stating any of this to a customer.
What you'd be signing up to clean up
A mature tree can throw on the order of 5,000 winged seeds in a year, and those samaras plus the seedlings they produce are the actual maintenance burden rather than any leaf litter. Given its size, autumn leaf drop is minor and rarely the reason anyone picks up the phone.
Where to keep it away from
Shallow, fibrous and genuinely non-aggressive; it is small enough that it does not threaten drives, walks, foundations or sewer laterals, which is exactly why it got planted tight to houses in the first place. The root problem is reproductive rather than mechanical — seedlings take hold readily in mulch beds and fencerows, with most seed landing within about 100 metres of the parent.
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