Ill-sounding Italian's love for maple (8)
I believe the answer is:
sycamore
'maple' is the definition.
(sycamore is a kind of maple)
'ill-sounding italian's love' is the wordplay.
'ill sounding' becomes 'syc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'italian's love' becomes 'amore' ('love' in Italian).
'syc'+'amore'='SYCAMORE'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sycamore that I've seen before include "Timber producer" , "Wood" , "Large maple" , "Mr O'Casey is in the tree" , "Tree - may score (anag)" .)