Acer palmatum 'Beni otake'

Here are a couple of Acer palmatum 'Beni otake' that I have produced. The name means "big red bamboo". It forms a relatively large, by Japanese Maple standards, upright tree. This linearilobum holds it's color well and has a distinctively dark red, segmented bark.

 

Yes ... I like the leaf on that one Ellmore
Must keep an eye out for a mature specimin

 

I found a large specimen and have been growing it in a large pot on my upper deck for 4 years.It with stands the hot deck and full sun better than any tree in my collection.

 

maple fancier

The Beni otake is beautiful to me. I have seen a mature specimen in Zone 7 growing in
deep shade. Quite an adaptable specimen, if it does well on a patio in full sun also.

 

'Beni otake'

It is one of my many favorites. Here is one of mine, photo made 4-14-04.

 

backlit in the spring, this tre is pretty spectacular

 

CHR-
I love your close-up picture! May I use it on our mail order website, www.pendulousplants.com? Please contact me through the website or by private email.
Thanks!
Kelly

 

This is a photo of my Beni Otake taken May 10, 2007 in the Siskiyou mountain area of southern Oregon. This tree resides in heavily filtered light and has done well there for two years.

 

Has anyone experinced similar problems like the one shown on the attached picture? In spring the leaves are a beautiful dark red, turning greenish in June and now plenty of leaves are drying up from their tips until totally dry and falling off. The tree is in a large pot on a penthouse terrace with sun until 1. 00 p.m. then in shade but exposed to cool easterly winds.
I appreciate advice as to what I can do to save my 'Beni Otake. Thank you.

 

Hi.

There could be a number of reasons. My Beni Otake (also in a pot) had sun until early afternoon last year, and this did a lot of damage to the leaves. I moved it into more shade, and the situation is much better now. Other reasons could be the soil mix you are working with (not enough drainage and aeration: if you are growing maples in pots, the state of the rootball is something you can improve at the next repotting), or too much fertilization: for instance, if you are using a slow release formula that releases more as it gets warmer, you could be seeing the signs now that you overfertilized. Or a combination.

If it's in a pot, move it into a shadier spot if possible, or place another plant between it and the sun. This will also protect it from the wind that also dries out the leaves. Generally speaking, a lot of maple cultivars do better in dappled shade.
Schusch

PS: another source of stress could the the size of the pot, if it's still too big for the rootball, leaving a lot of the mix too wet.

 

I agree totally with Schusch's comments. Mine has done very well, but it's located in a rather dark place where it's exposure to sunshine is quite limited. When it does receive direct sunshine, it's intermittent (due to a canopy of madrones) and only from about 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. Also, it resides on a small hill where the drainage is very good, and I think this also helps.

 

Vigorous, upright , narrowly branched. Trees seem fine with full sun in this climate. H 24' x W 14' {H 8m. x W 4.5m.}. Pic 1 {group of 3} taken Oct.20/07. Pic 2 - Oct.22/07. Pic 3 - Oct.7/07.

 

Has anyone ever propagated the seed. I am going to next year and I am wondering what to expect.

 

I haven't tried sewing beni otake seed but this year I am going to try out a few red pygmy seeds I collected in the fall. They should be done stratifying in a couple of weeks I hope.

 

I bought this Beni otake as a first year graft. It was supposed to be Emperor but was mislabeled. However, I actually like the Beni Otake better than the Emperor I eventually got.

 

Does anyone know Japanese on here? All my research comes up with a dead end for the 'otake' part of this cultivars' name. 'Beni' is red (deep red or crimson to be precise), 'Take' is bamboo, but the 'o' does not exist, kyo or ko does mean big/large. So I guess the original name was 'Beni Kyo Take' or 'Beni Ko Take'. Wasn't sure if the Japanese language abbreviated certain letters in writing as they do in speaking. I love this tree! I'm planing on grouping it with 'Purple Ghost' and 'Red Dragon' to have a nice composition of textures in red... or beni :)

 

Believe it was introduced and named by a U.S. nurseryman and is the original name.

 

I'm not a linguist, but I believe I read somewhere that it is common to put the "o" in front of certain words or names in Japanese. If this is the case, then the definition for "take" being bamboo would still work when presented as "otake".

 

Thanks guy's for your help. I guess maybe the name is just being over done with meaning. After all some bamboo is 3 or 4 times the hight of a full grown 'Beni otake', which wouldn't make it very 'big' in the bamboo world. For now I'll settle for the meaning of 'red bamboo' for 'Beni Otake'.

 

In the Third Edition of J.D. Vertrees' "Japanese Maples" it states that "The name 'Beni otake' means 'big red bamboo.'" This is the most authoritive source I can think of.

 

Seems Elmore had it right in this thread's first post.

 

Well it seems my research was correct. After reading the last couple of post on here, I called a local institution with an East Asian department. A knowledegable woman told me that in the Japanese language the 'o' is used as a formality of respect and is not a word. So, 'Beni Otake' does not mean 'Big Red Bamboo' ! It's just 'Red Bamboo', which I think is more befitting.

It's very apparent to me the misuse of the Japanese language in the horticultural‎ trades, published or other wise. Why? it's beyond me. When I read a meaning of a cultivar like 'Dancing Red faced Monkey' being used by professionals and no one thinks somethings wrong....in this age of easy access of knowledge....that is just SAD!

To sit back on ones' laurels and trust 'anything' a person says as 'gods truth' when that same person is only specialized in one field is moronic and lazy. I for one love and respect the 'real' Japanese meaning behind these beautiful creations of living art, even if no one else does.

 

Well, craigathon, you have a new career earmarked for you: finding and correcting the hundreds (thousands?) of misnamed or inappropriately named maples out there. Best of luck to you.

 

I wish I knew the Japanese language, this "O" thing is a bit of a mystery. For example if you look up the cultivar 'O kagami' in Vertrees it says the name means simply "mirror", but if you use a translation robot, such as Babel Fish, to translate the Ganshuku webpage for this cultivar from the original Japanese characters into English, it says "Large mirror". This is a complete reversal compared to what is written about 'Beni otake' in the same book, where, as noted previously, "big red bamboo" is used. Maybe there is some nuance of context or how the original Japanese characters are written that may or may not make "O" mean big or large, or in other circumstances be an honorific or formality.


I understand 'Beni otake' was introduced by an American plantsman, who presumably spoke English as a first language. I wonder if he had a native Japanese speaker to advise him on the name or if he cobbled it together with the help of a dictionary? Did they originally also write the name in kanji, or has it only ever existed in the romaji (Latin alphabet) form? There is something to be said for leaving the Japanese names to native Japanese speakers.

 

This is why I think growers should lay off the Japanese names for new cultivars and name it something fun or meaningful in your own language. The average consumer cannot pronounce, let alone understand, these Japanese names. How attractive is the almost unpronounceable "Aka shigitatsu sawa" to the average consumer? And the translation is worse - "snipes rising from the swamp". YEA!! I want that in MY YARD!! Ackkk!! I'll take a name like 'Kandy Kitchen' or 'Bob's Big Green' over that one any day! :)