Acer monspessulanum

Acer monspessulanum - Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, accession #611-56.

 

Acer monspessulanum - Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, accession #1698-56.

 

Our largest known examples are in Bellingham* (405 Fieldstone Rd), and in Tacoma (Wright Park, Point Defiance Park). See Van Pelt, Champion Trees of Washington State.

*Washington State Champion. Last measured 1992, not checked recently.

 

Acer monspessulanum - UWBG Arboretum, accession #1698-56.

 

Private Collector
September 2010

Dax

 

acer monspessulanum in the wild ,this woods is in Monti della Tolfa,the region is Lazio,the province is Rome (west near the sea)the color of leaves is rich red ,i presume because the soil is volcanic or because many cow and horse live in this zone and fertilize natural this lovers the PH..grown with :cercis siliquastrum,pistacia lentiscus,fraxinus,quercus ilex ,under woods is present beautiful euphorbia
the castle is in Santa Severa distance 4km
pics date today

 

Great pics Alex

 

thanks Gomero :-)

 

Let's not forget the great beauty of the Montpelier maple in spring, when it is filled with flowers. Here is a flowering branch.

 

One that has been in the ground for about 20 years, a seedling taken from "Brive-la-Gaillarde" and brought back in a yoghurt pot.

September 2020, February 2021, and after pruning, May 2021.

My son calls this pruning "tête de chat" (cat's head). It works well on most maples, they can backbud lower :

 

By the way, Montpelier is the state capital of Vermont, this species of maple was called from Montpellier (two "L"s).

Vermont and Maine have a significant proportion of people from French origins like Jacqueline Bouvier (Kennedy), hence the name of the city. At that time, spelling was quite hazardous, but the maple species comes from the Mediterranean area, including Montpellier, not Montpelier in Vt.

Lile most maples, it can backbud lower. Here it is today (not the red one in the foreground, you stoopid ^_^)



If ever I have to cut it down, I'll look for an "ébéniste", a cabinet-maker, for the wood is as hard as iron and it must be interesting too to make musical instruments or marquetry.

 

The weather being what it is at the moment, it's probably the happiest of my trees...

 

the italian liutaio Stradivari used Acer campestre for the violin neck :)

 

He should have used Acer monspessulanum, much harder. He was an "amateur"...

<JOKING>

I don't know if there are any other Acer monspessulanum in my region, I've never seen any either in parks of private gardens a hundred kilometres around.

I still have two or three that I planned to shape as bonsai, but I'm gaving up. I will put them in much bigger pots, and wait for 3 years, when the climate change is really here and they will thrive like they do around the Mediterranean sea...

Oserai-je ? Shall I dare ? <LOL> My parents loved this song, so I heard it often when I was a kid :

 

Thanks for that, brought a smile. Who doesn't love Tino Rossi? Talk about instruments: he sure had a good one.

Parts of violins, or guitars, are sometimes made from A. campestre; but more typically the neck and scroll, like the back and sides, are made of A. pseudoplatanus. It must be well aged, and it continues to thin from vibration as the instrument is played. One of the tricks that luthiers and players can tell with trying a newly made instrument is it should sound a little muted (sourde), otherwise after 20 years or so of playing it will sound very thin.

I didn't know that Stradivari had neck/scroll made of campestre, that's interesting! I've played and handled several, but clearly was too in awe to notice much of anything...

I wonder if monspessulanum wouldn't be too hard and dense to make good tonewood. I have two electric violins which use resonant plates (rather than a chamber), one is made of A. saccharum and the other of the less dense Koa. The latter has a much deeper and mellower tone, whereas the sugar maple is very bright.

 

Wow.

**)

 

A rather unsightly specimen of montpellier maple in kerman, iran. im surprised it goes this far east into asia

 

I have a few seedling in need to plant soon.

 

They look perfectly healthy.

I used to think they only grew in a very mild environment, but I've had one in the ground for years and it survived the worst winters here, like 2011. You can plant it in full sun.
And the wood is very hard.
A tough guy indeed... ;°)

 

Good to know. I'm ready to get a few in the ground!

 

how old are they? @LoverOfMaples

 

2 or 3 years

 

I have some seeds of montpellier maple. these photos were taken 12 days ago, 108 more days of stratification to go!

 

Nice. I hope you have great success.

Question. The label say 90 day cold stratification. What's the 108 stratification for?

 

i had a feeling 90 days wouldnt be enough based on studies i saw online of germinating montpellier maple. they said it needed 3-4 months of cold stratification.

links:
Overcoming seed dormancy and improving germination characteristics in Acer monspessulanum sub turcomanicum

https://www.cibtech.org/J-LIFE-SCIE...4/JLS-066-DEC-36-ZARE-A-ACER-TURCOMANICUM.pdf

[PDF] A STUDY OF DIFFERENT TREATMENT EFFECT ON SEED GERMINATION CHARACTERISTICS AND SEEDLING SURVIVAL MONTPELLIER MAPLE (ACER MENSPESSOLANUM SUBSP. TURCOMANICUM RECH. F.) | Semantic Scholar