Acer palmatum 'Saoshika'. The description is: The star-shaped bright green foliage if this cultivar is of a rather thin and delicate texture. When backlit by the sun it appears almost transparent. The leaves are held out horizontally, making a layered effect in older portions of the plant. The new foliage is a bright yellow green, with the tips of the lobes tinged in red or carmine. This color is promident for the first weeks, and then the leaves gradually change to a uniform light green. as summer advances, the tones darken. The fall color is a stiking golden yellow. Makes a tall bushy shrub. When mature it should reach 3 meters tall by 3 meters wide.
Really impressed by this cultivar. I ordered it this spring from Lucile at Whitman Farms, and (due to limitations on space) had to plant it in full sun almost immediately. It scorched a bit, but went on to grow like mad and adjust quite well. Tough tree! The leaves are a great contrasting shape to most of my maples in the yard, and the green is very attractive.
'Saoshika' unfolding leaves and flowers. Might be showing a little nutrient deficiency as hadn't been repotted for a few years (rectified now) and these amoenum types seem to need their root space. Obviously would do better in the ground but I have to limit most of my maples to containers.
Very nice pics Maf. I’ve been thinking about this cultivar for quite some time due to the star like leaf shape. Although that can not be seen on yours yet, the pics with flowers are beautiful non the less!
Leaves fully opened up now and showing the star shaped leaf as mentioned above. I like how the tips of the leaf lobes often twist 90 degrees or so to the rest of the leaf and refract the light differently, thus enhancing the star effect and looking a different colour to the rest of the leaf when seen under the right light conditions. I can't remember if any of the usual books give a translation into English of the Japanese name for this tree, and I don't have my books with me tonight, but if anyone knows what it means I would love to hear. Here are the pictures from today, enjoy:
Ruffles, that makes sense, maybe ruffles in clothing or the like? The leaves are quite translucent when viewed from below which probably explains why the (ruffled?) tips can seem a different colour in the right lighting conditions.
Sorry D, I can't help myself: going to be a pain and jump on this since I speak Japanese and was curious -- I googled it and looking at this page (the pics do look similar to M's lovely tree, right?) the kanji in the name are... 小男鹿 ...which means 'little (male) deer'. Which is super cute too, right? もみじの独り言 もみじ「小男鹿（さおしか）」の
Here's our Acer 'Saoshika', (Amoenum group) resisting the worst of the summer heat in July 2022. Vertrees/Gregory 4th Ed. mentions that the name means "small male Japanese deer." In the heat and drought of this year, the leaves are smaller than usual. The plant is in full sun for most of the day.
Here is the pic I posted earlier in another thread. Like most of the amoenums the green leaves can take on some tones from the warmer end of the colour spectrum when exposed to sun in hot dry weather. This one grows in a container and is over 20 years old. Despite being small it is healthy enough.
