Japanese maple tree is not dropping dead leaves?

I would go ahead and remove the leaves, it should not hurt the tree.

It might be that there is some dead wood. You can remove the leaves and then see if the branches come back in the spring.

We have two of those trees and have the same problem. Last year we just waited until spring and then they fell off. I just assumed that was the trees “process”.

My oak tree still has a substantial number of dead leaves on it. It makes me a little nuts, because even into the dead of winter if I rake the lawn, the next good wind will cover it in leaves again. It’s like the tree has a never ending supply of dead leaves.

I have 2 Japanese maples and the same thing happens to them. When it starts to bother me I just remove the leaves by hand. They come right off and it oesn’t seem to hurt the trees at all.