How to distinguish Sycamore maple and its companions

I had received the question by mail several times about how to distinguish European maple-species before. But I could not have answered well for the question. In a sense, how to distinguish between the following three kinds of maples from Europe seems to me similar to how to distinguish between those maples such as Iroha-momiji, Yama-momiji and Oh-momiji from Japan. The following three kinds of maples have not only a natural species but also their crossbreed and their cultivars for a long time in the history of cultivation in Europe as well as in Japan. It is not an easy theme for us to judge.

I referred to the following text, and observed young trees, and I tried to put it together as follows.

ANTONIE LE HARDY DE BEAULIUU：「MAPLES」, Timber Press
"Maples of the World" by D.M. van Gelderen

Common Name	Sycamore maple Great maple	Velvet maple	Balkan maple Greek maple
Scientific name	Acer pseudoplatanus	Acer veltinum	Acer heldreichii
Appearance	25-35m	25m	25m, straight trunk broadly spreading, domelike branching
Trunk & bark	gray bark peels off	light gray, smooth	smooth, but vertically striped on older tree
Branches	brown or greenish, glabrous	gray brown, strong, young twigsreddish green & glabrous	brownish, current twigs lighter brown
Buds	large, ovoid, 8-10mm in diameter with overlapping yellow-green, dark brown-bordered scales	Thick, overlapping scales, The scales at the tip of branch with whitish gray down	red to dark brown, very pointed
Leaves	5 lobed, dark green above, gray green to light purple below with more down	3 or 5 lobed, large, dark green covered below with velvet-thick light brown down, rib also brown hairs at the base fall color yellow	5 lobed, glabrous on both sides, but small hairs on the upper side at the base brownish down along the main vein below deeply cleft leaves with very close lobes
Petiole	greenish yellow or reddish covered with brownish hair	long up to 40 cm downward	yellow up to 20 cm
Flowers	greenish yellow, in large cylindrical, drooping, 15-20 cm	yellowish green, in erect corymbs, at the end of branches, 8-12 cm	yellow, in short & broad upright umbels
Fruits	thick & round	wings downy, forming an angle of 90-120 degrees	with an angle of 60 degrees
Distribution	Central & southern Europe	Caucasus	Balkan states & Greece

First of all, I will show you their buds in winter.

The images will be added one by one.

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