Identification: Three maples in a park

Discussion in 'Maples' started by AlainK, Sep 28, 2013.

  1. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Hi there,

    There's a botanical garden close to where I work, and they have a section with rhodos, azaleas and maples. There are a couple of them I'd like to identify :

    The first one is always in the shade and has mostly green stems.

    The second one seems to be the same species, but the stems are mostly red. It gets some sun in the morning and at the end of the day, that's perhaps why. Both have samaras that form an acute angle, but the photo I took is blurred.

    The third one has very smal curled up leaves. the tree itself is about 5-6 meters tall. Not a single samara on this one.

    Any idea what these might be?...
     

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  2. JT1

    JT1 Contributor 10 Years

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    The third reminds me of my Acer palmatum 'Okushimo'. Based on the leaf and the structure of the branching at the tips. But there is a lot of confusion as to what's really what with this variety- Acer palmatum 'Crippsii' and 'Okushimo' aka 'Crispa'... I don't pretend to know the real answer. Also 'Kurui Jishi' looks very similar. I saw a very old and large 'Kurui Jishi' that reminded me a lot of my 'Okushimo' at Leuty nursery.

    Go with any of them and I'm sure you will have a tree that is very similar if not the same as the third photo.

    My friend who is Japanese explained that Okushimo means "being covered in frost". The curled parts of these leaves looks like it is layered with a light frost. Which I think is kind of cool, that is if mine is really Okushimo, but I really don't care. It makes for a cool story or explination of the name and the growth habit of slightly curled leaves showing the lighter colored underside making the leaf look like it's covered in frost.
     
  3. JT1

    JT1 Contributor 10 Years

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    The first could be Acer triflorum which is native to northern China and North Korea (introduced to Europe in 1923). I am not enough of an expert to know for certain that it is triflorum. You can take a copy of Maples of the World along with a ruler to the park on your next break at work, turn to page 206 and everyone in the park will either think your nuts or a truly remarkable person. Either way, then you might know for sure. Or a safer approach is to wait for a response from someone unlike myself who knows for sure.
     
  4. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    I don't think it's a triflorum: I also took a photo of the bark and it doesn't seem to correspond to what I've seen from the web. What's more, on Acer triflorum the leaves seem to be very similar to Acer griseum. I have one, and the leaves are very different: the one in the park has much bigger, leathery leaves. Yet, they might well be related because there are "cracks" in the bark.

    Well, I took these photos during lunch break, and there were some pupils in the park enjoying one of the last warm sunny days of the season (stroms and heavy rain today). They already know that I'm half-crazy, even if they are not my pupils <LOL>
     
  5. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Two of the Amur maple persuasion - the second even has the variegation Amur maple often has - and as mentioned a Japanese maple quite like 'Okushimo'. If it was raised from seed it won't be entitled to the same name unless that cultivar is taken to consist of more than one clone.
     
  6. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    It must be an 'Okushimo'.

    Thanks a lot JT1 and Ron.

    I actually thought of a cultivar of Amur maple, Ron : last year, I collected samarras on several of these maples, only three of them germinated and though they're still very small, I'mm 99% sure they are a kind of Acer ginnala. But there is no such tree there! So the seedlings must have reverted to the parent species. I'll search the web to see if there are similar cultivars.

    [EDIT] I think I got it! (and BTW It was an opportunity to update my knoledge in Acer species:

    "A. tataricum. Subsp. ginnala (formerly Acer ginnala), is commonly called Amur maple."

    Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala 'Flame'

    ...and I forgot to post a picture of the bark:
     

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  7. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    I would look to see if it was grafted, some cultivars give off similar seedlings. I've seen a friend with a nursery raise entire batches of variably red-barked continuations of coralbark maple, a percentage of purple-leaved Japanese maples come up purple, and I've seen a planting of some of the larger A. japonicum 'Aconitifolium' in my area with fern-leaved seedlings scattered around beneath them.
     
  8. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Thanks Ron,

    I've updated my previous message while you were typing yours.

    If the weather allows, I'll take and post photos when they are in their autumn garments: there's also a big 'Butterfly', or maybe 'Tailor', at least two shirasawanum and a few green or red dissectums.

    PS: I've just recieved my taxes, Argh! And yet, I ordered three Acer discolor this morning. I'm thinking of selling the house, keeping the garden, and live under a tipi ^^
     
  9. JT1

    JT1 Contributor 10 Years

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    Ha..Ha..I can relate. Property taxes July and January, then income taxes in April. Every time I get the bill, I say that's it...No more plants! We are done!...But then all the months in-between, I forget and my collection continues to grow like the national debt! Just when you think it can't get any bigger it some how does (both my collection and the national debt, that is...)
     
  10. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Hahaha... Anywhere we are, all the same but different ;-)

    OK, back to maples only now so we don't start any political ranting, in a way I started it, but I want to keep this place clean 8)
     
  11. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Amur Maple still is Acer ginnala, as far as many botanists are concerned. The case for its being conspecific with A. tataricum isn't that good.
     

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