Can someone please help me id this maple?

What Acer is this?

Can anyone help me with this Acer, its a full moon I think. A bit slow growing, in Castlegar at Zone 5b in part sun part shade, VERY pretty in the fall. I lost the tag of course. I am new to this forum.

 

Re: What Acer is this?

Looks like Acer palmatum, not sure it's A. shirasawanum.

 

Re: What Acer is this?

Thanks Ron, I will check that. I thought it might be flavescens but the leaves are not dissected.

 

Re: What Acer is this?

Hi Katherine I read in the"Maple of the World" the best book for maples (for me!!) at voice flavescens: dissectum f. or Flaveacens (called by Veitch 1876)see Reticulatum,(called by Andre1870)see Shigitatsu sawa YoKoHoma Nurseries 1896 this name are synonyms !!
Alex66

 

Re: What Acer is this?

Thanks Alex, I am pretty sure flavescens for this is wrong. I dont have a good reference for maples, at all. Do you have an opinion on what this is?

 

I perhaps did not post this in the correct group, not knowing there is a Maple forum here. Can someone please tell me what this is, its not an A. palmatum shirasawanum as suggested yesterday. I am new to this forum. This very small spreading shrub/tree is in Castlegar, in 5b and tolerates -27.

 

Unless you've seen some new re-classification I'm not aware of, AA palmatum and shirasawanum are two different species. You appeared to be calling it a cultivar of the latter, my point was that I thought it might not belong to that species.

 

My apologies, Ron, in my ignorance of species of horticultural Acer, I thought you were identifying this as "A. palmatum ssp shinasawanum", and as I dont know very much about horticultural spp of Acer, and have no books on the subject I checked this on the web, always a bad way to ident anything, and two sites popped up with what looks like a very dark read maple with disected leaves. So I take it you think this is Acer shirasawanum? I have since looked again, and see that with simply calling it A shinasawanum, posts on this site from Elmore, yweride and mjhi676 come up with A. shinaswanum "Autumn moon" which is very close and probably IS what I have. I may have not read your post very carefully, and the one following it from someone else I did not understand at all. So thanks for pursuing this even further and answering my post a second time.

Kat

 

(merged threads)

 

Maybe "acer shirasawanum palmatifolium" ? The one here holds it's colour for about 2 weeks.

 

Maybe 'acer shirasawanum palmatifolium" ? The one here, if the ID is correct,generally holds it's colour for about 2 weeks. It's about 9' high, 12' wide, at about 15 years old. Not as strong growing { branchwise} as the Acer japonicums, not twiggy, and kind of open. Requires little pruning, nice habit, and beautiful yellow orange fall colours. Sorry no pics right now.

 

Can you tell if it is a grafted tree? Maybe it was grown from seed? i find them hard to ID, many cultivars and various names for the same ones.

 

It MAY be grafted, but it will not be easy for me to tell at the moment, as it is pretty much covered in 3 feet of snow with only the upper branch tips sticking out! Its leaves are partly dissected but still its a palmatum like shape. Reading the posts on this site, i am definetly going to try to germinate some seeds, but it will have crossed with what ever I have here. This is a very pretty shrub, and I am lucky to have it. Thanks for responding, its nice to have a friendly voice answer my question. I will try and look at the base for grafting when the snow is gone.

Kat

 

Maybe your local library has a japanese maple book or could order one in for you. Vertrees book is good, lots of pics. Above these threads "NOTES- Maple reference books" mentions others. Doesn't look like 'Autumn Moon' according to it's description which shows not as deeply incised leaves. "A. shirasawanum palmatifolium" is described as 11 lobed leaves, although some are 9 lobed. Your plant leaves seem mainly 9 lobed, maybe it will have more later? The bonsai maple growers usually seem to be pretty good on their IDs. If you do grow seedlings, you will likely have some root stock to use for grafting. Crosses can be really interesting and worthwhile from what i've seen of other people's seedlings. Seems like a lot of knowledgable growers and good teachers on here.

 

Mountain Maples in the U.S. could tell you if you send them the link.

 

This looks to me to be very like Acer Shirasawanum 'Autumn Moon'
Check out this photograph on Esvelds site in Holland
http://www.esveld.nl/~laur/index.php?lan=eng&s=plant&q=product_details_pl&id=3606

 

Hi Kat some questions:the color of bark?(winter/ spring)the color of leaves is total green? PH of soil? your source of maple? you have another informations?
A:

 

Hi Alex, the tag resurfaced but its illegible. It is hand written and says Acer A something, but I dont trust it to be right. To answer your question the bark is an olive green on the larger stems, and on the new growth a coral color. The pH is acidic, its about 5.5 the source is the local Columbia gardens nursery. Which means it could be from anywhere. The material it is in is sand, its slow growing, very spreading habit, not at all upright, but not weeping or trailing either. Its buds are swelling now. Its a pale olive green in color in the summer but turns the color above consistently every fall. Its at least 6 years old. It does not turn completely orange, but rather is reddish tipped on the mainly yellow leaves. Hope this helps.

My thanks to all for suggestions re books. I will try some of them for sure. I am pretty sure the local library doesnt have a book, but I will try.

 

For the book you visit a site of Timber Press ;wwwtimberpress.com ;they have some book about maple very interesting;
A.

 

Actually the lobes may be too wide for it to be A. s. palmatifolium, and no curl on the lobe edges either. Beautiful pic of the one called 'Autumn moon ' on the Esveld site, would like to grow that. It seems different than the 'Autumn moon' pictured in Vertrees 2nd edition though.

 

Chimera ... one of the beauties of these plants are that no two photographs are ever exactly the same, especially when they are grown in different countries and the photographs taken in different years at different times

 

I've attached a picture of my little Autumn Moon, taken in late may. I agree with Sam that there is a lot of variation for the same plant depending on environment. Still, for me this is not A. shirasawanum 'Autumn Moon.'

Autumn Moon is particularly sensitive to light, it stays quite orange for a long time in direct sun, but also gets a bit crispy later in the season. Meant to be a faster grower than Aureum, but I haven't really observed it yet.

-E

 

Hi everyone today I look in the site www mendocinomaples.com and for me is shirasawanum "Full Moon Maple
alex66

 

The 'Full Moon Maple' is Acer Shirawasanum 'Aureum' (please correct me if I am wrong)
I have two, neither of which have show the red colouration on the leaves in this climate
Emery ... Your Autumn Moon looks good. Colouration very like Orange Dream, although obviously a different leaf shape

 

On looking again at the original photograph I see that the leaf shape is not really like Acer Shirasawanum at all ... rather too divided???
Maybe Ron was right in the first place?? Maybe it is a form of Acer Palmatum?