Photo taken at Westonbirt 22nd Oct 2006.Westonbirt is The National Arboretum in Gloucestershire,U.K. This is an evergreen Acer.Discovered in 1844 by Henry Fletcher Hance,in China.Mainly grown as a greenhouse plant [zone 7.]but surviving in a woodland setting so far! "Maples for Gardens"by the van Gelderens state it is synonymous with Acer fargesii. Sorry Thought I was under Acer fabri
I found it available here::http://www.woodlanders.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=1591 nice looking leaves, I would like to see a full grown tree.
I love Acer Fabri, so returned to Westonbirt on 22nd April 2010, to see how it had survived the coldest winter in Britain for 40 years. It was looking beautiful and was just a mass of flower. Most of the old green leaves were gone, but the shiny deep red/ maroon leaves were looking just fine. Apologies that I couldn't get a decent close up of the tiny flowers, it was just too windy!
I agree with Silver Surfer that A. fabri is a beautiful tree and have some photos of the same tree taken almost exactly six months later to the day (21st October 2010). I took some from underneath to show the leaf underside too, which is similar to the top side unlike some of the other maples with simple lanceolate leaves, like the glaucous underside of A. oblongum. The tree was planted in 1996 according to the Interactive Map and is given as 1.6m tall, and can be found in Silk Wood along one of the drives on the way towards the National Collection. It seemed taller in my recollection, but I am crouching for the shot under the branches.
