Big-Leaf Maple vs Painted Lady

Acer macrophyllum compared with Vanessa cardui

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Big-Leaf Maple	Painted Lady
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Insecta (Insects)
Order	Sapindales (Sapindales)	Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)
Family	Sapindaceae	Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies)
Genus	Acer	Vanessa
Species	Acer macrophyllum	Vanessa cardui

Conservation Status

Big-Leaf Maple

LC — Least Concern

Painted Lady

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Big-Leaf Maple	Painted Lady
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Big-Leaf Maple

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Distributed across Belgium, Canada, Ireland, and United States.

Painted Lady

Habitat

Typically found in virtually all terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (South Africa), Asia (Cyprus, Taiwan), Europe (41 countries), and North America (Canada, United States).

Big-Leaf Maple

The Big-Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) is a species in the genus Acer. It is currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. Widespread and abundant across its range, with stable populations and no immediate conservation concerns.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 4 countries:

🇧🇪 Belgium 🇨🇦 Canada 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇺🇸 United States