It does have a lot of misshapen leaves, or some unlobed on branch tips. Most of the leaves are pretty regular though, and the leaf texture isn't at all like paxii. So I don't think there's any doubt about it's tridentness (trident-hood? trident-kind?) :) The poo-bahs don't even recognize var. ningpoense, which has a lot of unlobed leaves, or var. integrifolium, which has pretty much all unlobed leaves, as distinct! I don't feel any need to agree with them on this one, though!
;-) I've never seen a paxii in real life ! But no leaves even on the one in the ground are unlobed. Here's a (bad) picture of my "big" one, about 3.30 tall now, between two showers of rain (thunder is rolling, but not so much rain here so far) :
Hey E. I would love to get a few scion from 'Hime kaede' :) Is that typical with the leaves sometimes?
Winter is coming, as somebody once said over and over again. :) How do you mean "typical", on the species? I guess so, on the stem tips. I rec'd a shipment of pozzolan 3-6 this afternoon -- in sacks, at last! -- so was finishing up some pending repotting, the last of which was v. ningpoense. So this inspired me to go around and take some pictures of the various types we have here, and A. paxii for comparison. It may be that the one I have as ssp. buergerianum, above, is really var. formosanum. I believe it's often confused. The v. formosanum in the pics below is in a pot, and was in full sun, but got quite badly burned in mid-July. I moved it to deep shade where it's been relaxing since then, seems pretty much recovered; it never defoliated, just browned. You can see how the (really leathery) leaves on A. paxii are often quite irregular.
You guys should come visit and poke around the garden. Easy for Alain, but always got a place for you to stay here, Derek. I can grab some of the ningpoense seed for you if you're interested. The Tridents are often heavy seed producers.
We remember how you welcomed the members of the Maple Society a few years ago, we know that we will always have a warm welcome. Perhaps another visit during a Maple Society Meeting ?... Or just an "off-record meeting" for a happy few ? ;-)
This discussion reminded me that I had noticed some differences with the samaras of var. ningpoense and the species, so I wanted to post those here. On the left var. ningpoense has a narrower opening between wings, and the inner wing edges descend nearly directly (or have a very minor sinus) from the split between the nutlets. On the species, the opening is much larger, and the inner wing edges make a more pronounced sinus form. Var. ningpoense has much wider wings than the species, and is missing the hard, straight keel on the outer edges; the wings also have a slight flare toward the tip of the outer edges, which is missing on the species. The species, the wings are more elongated than in var. ningpoense, and the nutlets are smaller and rounder compared to the oval nutlets of ningpoense.
8th May 2023 and my Trident or botanical name Acer buergerianum opening up quite nicely, with some nice pastel shades on the leaves.
