I have a White Tigress about four feet tall, I thought it had just giving up a few weeks ago when it shed all its brown leaves. Today I am out and about looking over the trees when I see this one spitting out those new leaves! I have seen trees hold there leaves until the end of November, but not this one. I don't see any other buds for next year, it is using its reserve buds to do this.. Oh my what is going on here, what should I do? Many of my tress are doing the same thing, but it is on new growth. It seems to be an act o desperation to recover after 2.5 months of summer dormancy. Should I increase the calories or just lay back. I think it is possible that some white tigress have different parents. I can't see any difference between our native snakebark A. pensylvanicum and the tree I have. it also has some small canker infections. This hybrid does grow south of me but I have not seen it. Maybe global warming is effecting what was to today is what not.
I have one a little bigger that seemed to be especially sensitive to this year's heat and lack of rain, almost as much as my native stewartias. I watered it fairly regularly and it has done well, and is in a lot more sun than it was when I planted it since the cover tree was lost. It put out 2' of new growth. Does pensylvanicum prefer damper environments? I've never seen one in the wild to compare to my tigress, which has lots of bright white striping and very large leaves. I'm in a coastal area that is still probably a little cooler than you generally, but we had a very hot summer here, reminded me of my youth in Tennessee.
Acer pensylvanicum is said to be found in low areas, but I have found this not to be true at all. The tree grows any where that it is allowed to grow. However its range is limited to Heat Zone 6 and lower. I do think the reason it is not grown in Heat Zone 7 is because the bark of the young trees is very thin and will canker. Then otherwise I have seen many or most in the wild having a rusty looking canker. The bark on an older tree is very tought. If they say it likes low areas, I would thank all that is being relayed is that the tree needs a bit more water than trees with heavier leaves or thicker leaves. When you look up into the canopy of a mature pensylvanicum you will see the sun filtering down through the green leaves overlapping in varying shade of bright green. In the hotter regions the sun may be too hot for this type of leaf, however if it was well watered all the time I think its range could be expanded. I may have posted some pictures here of its best feature the papery green leaf, the white striations of the bark also looks very exotic, but as the tree ages these vertical stripes dissipate in to a very smooth even silky gray bark .. I have found most of these trees at elevations of 300 to 670 meters in western Pennsylvania and New York.
