Not Shirasawanum!

Discussion in 'Maples' started by AlainK, Aug 8, 2019.

  1. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    I have these three seedlings I got from the seeds exchange, but I must have mixed up things when I labelled them. They don't look at all like young Shirasawanum, do they? Yet, the light green leaves with narrow leaflets that are almost not serrated look great. If they survive, perhaps they will be easier to identify when they're more mature.

    acer-ex-shir_190808a.jpg acer-ex-shir_190808b.jpg
     
  2. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    You're very lucky, they are A. pentaphyllum. If 3 is too many, I will be glad to relieve you of the great responsibility of owning these critically endangered maples! :) :)

    I'm planning on trying to grow a grove of them, I have 4 seedlings that I thought would be big enough to plant next year, but they had quite a bit of difficulty over the winter (even though in 12l pots) and so I think I'll wait. I put a grafted one (on pseudoplatanus) in the ground and it died back quite severely over winter, but has good growth this summer. We'll see if it survives.

    One thing to know about these is they leaf out very late, my seedlings show leaves around mid- 3rd week- of June.

    -E
     
  3. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    I checked the list of seeds I received, and yes, there were some A. pentaphyllum : I'd be very happy to send you one.
     
  4. 0soyoung

    0soyoung Rising Contributor

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    cool!
     
  5. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Yeah... ;-)

    If you didn't live so far and the customs regulations were not what they are (which I understand very well), I would have been glad to send you one as well : while looking for more info on this species that I only knew by name, I found at least one nursery in France that sells them (from seeds, 28 €), so if the last one didn't make it out here, not only did the others have a chance to be at home somewhere else, but if I can find another here, it's OK.

    I wonder if someone could make a good bonsaï from them. I mean, the leaves look like stars, or firework explosions if the autumn colours are as flashy as some of the photos I saw when researching about it. Could be quite cool...
     
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  6. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    They're pretty tetchy plants, as well as a bit leggy, so not sure how well it would do for bonsai. No harm in trying of course! You'll want to keep them well protected during their first winter.

    Fall color is a nice orange red most years.

    Anyway no obligation of course but I'll be delighted to increase the size of my grove by 20%. Assuming there are no losses even before planting.

    Sometimes the seed distribution packets are marked with where the seed came from (Westonbirt, etc) do you recall if the pentaphyllum said anything?
     

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