Having trouble getting maple leaves for those autumn DIYs the balloons have been dropping? This guide will show you where to find maple leaves and how to collect them. Soon, you'll have more maple leaf stacks than you could've ever dreamed of!

How to Gather Maple Leaves for Maple Leaf Season

Late May marks the beginning of maple leaf season for those in the southern hemisphere. As autumn comes to a close and the weather starts to get a little colder in preparation for winter, the leaves begin to fall off the trees, giving players a whole new material to use for crafting some of those beautiful autumn recipes.

They're more like cherry blossoms than pinecones or acorns

Players who've been gathering autumn-exclusive materials must be used to getting pinecones and acorns by shaking trees and waiting for them to fall. While it's easy to see why players would think that maple leaves would be the same way (after all, leaves do fall from trees when you shake them in real life!), this isn't the case in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Maple leaves and cherry blossoms act in similar ways; to catch them, you must wait to see them wafting through the air before swinging your net and catching them!

Once you successfully catch one, a message will appear, just like it does when you catch a bug!

Help! I can't catch any of the leaves I see falling!

Some players see all the leaves falling around them and try to catch them all, only to find out that the leaves just don't want to be caught. If you're one of these players, don't worry! You aren't alone. If you run around a little, you'll start to notice that some leaves are bigger and much, much redder than others. These are the maple leaves! Swing your net at these and you're sure to have a stack of them in no time.

Oh no, I don't have trees on my island because I chopped them all down! Does that mean I can't get maple leaves?

There isn't any need to fret if you find yourself in maple leaf season without any trees. Thanks to Animal Crossing's magic, the maple leaves will continue to fall even if there isn't a single tree in sight!

Are maple leaves here to stay?

Unfortunately, no. Maple leaves will fall from May 16-26 for those in the southern hemisphere, so catch those leaves while you can!