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It certainly appears to be a maple. Saplings are trees that are just starting to grow. Just as with mature trees, saplings can be identified by noting their details. Although it's typically a sapling's leaves that are the primary key in identifying it, the leaves are only one part of a sapling. Other parts, such as buds and twigs, are also used in identifying tree saplings. However, because saplings are not mature trees, they can be harder to identify than older trees.

Here are a few tips to help in identifying the different maple leaves:

• Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) – If leaf stem shows no milky juice when broken and leaf is about as long as wide with base of leaf curving, it is likely a Sugar Maple
• Red Maple (Acer rubrum) -If the leaf surface is smooth with a network of depressed veins, and the lobes are drawn out to long tapering tips, and the teeth are of irregular sizes (saw-like), it is likely a Red Maple
• Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) – If the leaf stem shows a milky juice when broken, the leaf usually wider than long and the base of the leaf is not curving, it is likely a Norway Maple
• Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) – If the leaf is rough-textured with an intricate network of veins with a white-downy under-surface, and the end lobe narrows toward its base while notches between the lobes are deep, then it is likely a Silver Maple
• Freeman Maple (Acer x freemani) – This is a hybrid of the Red Maple (A. rubrum) and Silver Maple (A. saccharinum). It is difficult to tell the difference as it will have qualities of both.

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