I have two of the same, sold as Acer discolor. But they are not. But I wonder if they might not be Acer calcareum. A couple of photos taken yesterday. the first one : The second one : What do you think ?...
Hi Alain, Def not close to Acer calcaratum. These plants are believed to be natural hybrids of Acer oblongum × Acer buergerianum. This is related to me by Francisco Garin, the former director of Iturraran Botanical Garden, after his contact with HY in the harvesting area of the Han River, where the original plant found in Coursiana, as well as the seed from Jacques Urban, which grew these plants, comes from. Note that Acer paxii is not found in this area, oblongum (syn. discolor) is common as is buergerianum. The opinion of these learned gentlemen -- which for what it's worth, I share -- is very confident. As you know I have several of these planted here, and have now also planted a maple received as Acer discolor which is quite clearly oblongum. Regarding the connection with our plants, Jacques Urban said the following: "... origin of my seedlings was not the Arboretum of Coursiana: it is the opposite. I was the one who sold it to Coursiana 15-18 years ago. I ordered 25g of Acer oblongum from China. After a year, when the seedlings were ready to sell, I saw that the leaves were not similar to those of oblongum so I couldn't sell them. Then the following year I ordered 25g of Acer oblongum again: same result except that I had a lot of seedlings because the germination was better than that of Acer oblongum in my experience. So I tried to give this maple a name while the seedlings, although homogeneous, presented differences in foliage that persisted: I put together 2 photos of 2 trees in my house, one very similar to A. paxii and the other to A. oblongum (with few leaves). lobed) and I have a third with identical leaves but very red in autumn. All seedlings were semi-persistent or deciduous in cooler winters with a pink to carmine color depending on the individual. According to Mapples of the world Acer paxii is described as rare so I thought it could be Acer discolor without thinking of a hybrid because normally the hybrids of the same tree are homogeneous. On the other hand the Chinese collect anything so it can be a natural hybrid between oblongum and buergerianum or/e paxii and buergerianum of various origins! ..." Since Acer paxii is not endemic to the collection region, the only reasonable conclusion is as stated at the top. Best, -E
