Acer chingii, Hu. This rare Chinese maple may end up as a subspecies of Acer sinense, which has been raised in rank from A. campbellii subsp sinense by Flora of China. That source lists chingii as a species with reference to Murray who had it as a subspecies. After my short time of observing chingii it doesn't seem very much like sinense with the exception that it is 5-lobed; but I haven't seen flowers or fruit yet. Regardless it is a very attractive, architectural maple with interesting leaves with right-angled lobes. It seems an enthusiastic grower. Fall color is unknown.
It was yellow last year, and "unspectacular" as they say. I think it will stay yellow, but maples often color better in the ground. These are getting planted this year, so we'll see after they get established. A. sinense is often red/yellow and quite showy, another reason to think chingii is separate.
Thanks for posting, Alex : refreshing this thread made me think that 3 seedlings I got form a batch of "mixed" seeds from the MS seed exchange might well be Acer chingii. Here are photos of 2 of them : From what Emery wrote previously, it seems to match : Right. Mine are potted and are developping faster than palmatums in the same size containers. See the second one. Grazie per aver aggiornato questo thread Alex. ;-)
AlainK it was a pleasure to upload photos of this rare maple. your selection by seeds is interesting ! :-)
The seedling is interesting, but I really don't think it is A. chingii. The leaves don't look right to me. One person's opinion, but the lobes on chingii are practically triangular in shape, not ovate as with the seedlings. Further, the seedling is more indented, and the basal lobes seem larger. Still there do seem to be some affinities with chingii, maybe a hybrid? The first pic of the second plant seems closest, but for autumn color we've seen much more like to Alex's plant, a sort of dirty yellow that I'm hoping will get better as the plants are better established. Anyway always hard to tell with very young growth, but our chingiis have been pretty consistent. We have 2 A. chingii in ground, but neither is well established or has flowered. Do you have any pics of flowers Alex?
Oh, sh...ugar. I thought I had identified them, at last. Never mind, they're still nice sports... ;-)
I thought it would be interesting to get some pics of the buds. They have 6-8 bud scales, and the terminal bud is present (unlike for example A. sinense, which had been considered the same maple). The 3 pics of A. chingii above come from two different specimens. For comparison, here are terminal buds on A. sinense and A. palmatum: Maybe this will help @AlainK ID the seedling! -E
Excellent idea @emery ! I managed to take a couple of pictures before the sun sets : Probably not a palmatum or amoenum, not sure about the others... But you're right, they're not A. chingii : mine have leaves that are slightly serrated, and the angle of the basal lobes is different. I was over-enthusiastic, I should have had a closer look. Still, I love my "acerp-div-009a, b, and c", even if they're not "p" (like "palmatum") ... ;0)