WOW--you have quite a problem. That is not from your maple and it is definately a woody shrub of some sort. If you want to kill it off, roundup will not likely do it. The glycophosphate weed lillers are made to tackly soft-tissue plants like grasses and broadleaf weeds, not woody plants. To use enought to kill the invasive plant you would hurt everything else. You might consult your local extension office or a reliable nursery or garden center for somthing like a sucker stop product that you could paint on the tips of the chutes after cutting them. This might do the trick.
It is definately not the maple and japanese maples do not normally or only very rarely send up suckers, but sometime they can send up chutes from very low on the understock of the grafted plant--not what I would consider a sucker and not from the roots. Other species of maples are different in that regard.

MJH

why don't you post a pic of it if you could figure out how on this archaic site;>) ( I haven't and I'm pretty computer literate) or email me a jeg at my personal listed email...)without seeing it ..it is impossible to identify and you don't say whether it is a massive thin or heavy root system ...need more info and a jpeg ...If it massive light roots it may be creeping charley ( don't know it's scientific name) it is almost impossible to get rid of and sometimes stays confined to one area but can move especially if you throw the pulled up "charley" anywhere it will root it's horrible and has blue flowers this time of year but may not in shade but thats just a shot in the dark guess... need more info...David

Thank you. I have a few large nurseries here - but no one has identified my problem yet. My one nursery is really poor at ID, they think everything is Joe Pye Weed. If I wanted to find my "local extension office" where would I look, or what are they an extension of? I guess I'll keep pulling until I find something that may have a longer term effect. I'm glad to know it's not my maple. I've been afraid to try anything overly agressive with digging or tilling because I don't feel like digging up all my tete-a-tet and hyacinth bulbs, and I don't want to damage my maple's root system. I think this weed was living here before I moved in, so it's really comfortable. I can't post my pictures on this site because I cannot crop and compress enough to get them to 61KB to meet the limit. I've been posting links to the photo album that I stored them in. I don't have any great pictures because I've been pulling them at the first sign and I only have tiny, tiny samples of the leaves, with some root right now. Pulling this weed could honestly be a full time job. It definitely does not flower. The leaves are spearmint shaped, jagged edged and green - often with reddish edges and under side. The root has long thin strands coming from larger/thicker brown roots with white centers that also sometimes have protruding white "nodes?" I've pulled root up to 1" in diameter from 6+ inches below the surface. I wish I could just inject a poison directly into the root. Thanks for trying. I guess I'll take this back over to the weed forum, but I think they are stumped too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Weed Pics

your right the pics.. well.. are poor... but it is not 'creeping charley" although you descriptiom of mint like etc is right on... the leaf shape is not... charley is round serrated and does have flowers and if you ever get it ...well...it will be your "friend" for life we have gotton rid of most of our "wild beds because of it and started more formal ones but it also loves mulch and if you put landscape fabric with mulch on top it reaches over the topp and dives in and intetwines in the mulch and when you pull it you get it and three foot sqaures of mulch up at the same time and have to deep six both... ...good luck never seen it before but at least it ain't japanese maples David

Was there ever a cherry or other type of Prunus located in this area? Those leaves look suspiciously like cherry, which is notorious for sending out suckers from old rootstock, even long after the mother tree has been removed. Digging out as much of the root system is probably the most effective route for removal regardless of ID, although I'd be cautious if attempting this very close to the J. maple as this tree will not tolerate much cultivation in its root zone and you could introduce pathogens rather easily into the damaged roots.

And Mike, this is REALLY petty and I apologize in advance but it is something that bugs the heck out of me, professional writer that I am. "Shoots" are the sprouts of plants and "chutes" are a means of access, as in "laundry chutes". I hope you take this with the good intent it comes with :-)

Thank you. I do have a "weeping cherry" which I like a lot. It's large and mature. I did find more of the developed plants in my North bed. I'm a really inexperienced gardener, and I've noticed that many leaves all look exactly the same to me. The leaves on the weed look very similar to my cherry tree leaves (without the blossom) but also to my Spirea (maybe Goldflame?) - but that should come up as stalks I think. The new growth near the stems look a little like asparagus to me. My neighbor has several unidentified brushy, tree-like shrubs growing, again the leaves look similar to my inexperienced and untrained eye, and any of those could be spreading I suppose. I posted some additional pictures - which may or may not be better, but are closer. They are named Weed of Life still. If you need pictures of my cherry leaves, I can probably take some mediocre pictures of those too. If it were just a matter of pulling quickly I wouldn't mind so much - but this weed is hard to pull, it needs to be dug and is very resistant. It breaks off if you just yank. I really appreciate the effort to help. If it is my Cherry tree, do you have any idea what I do to discourage it without disturbing my mature tree. I like it a lot, but one is enough. I really appreciate the continued help and effort of everyone to diagnose my problem.

Sherri

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Weed Pics

I'd pretty much put $$ on the fact that those are cherry suckers :-( Those close ups of the leaves are pretty distinctive. Cherries (as well as many other trees) have rather wide-spreading root sysytems and they are rather close to the surface - suckers can appear at quite a distance from the original plant. Your best approach to prevent damage to the original tree is to simply cut off the suckers at ground level or even slightly below ground. They will be most prevelent at this time of year when the tree is pushing new growth, so while this will be an ongoing problem in coming years, you will not see huge amounts of suckers appearing later in the season.

Ornamental cherries tend to be problematic trees for any number of reasons and this is just one. Good luck.

Thank you, you are most correct - this is in deed from my cherry - I just found shoots right off the main roots of my cherry, and mature shoots that exactly match the cherry. I will do as you suggested. It's a shame this is such a problematic tree, because it's very pretty. Thank you so much for resolving this issue - it's plagued me for years. Just knowing what it is, and that it can't be "conquered" is a relief.

Sherri