Six years ago I purchased a 1-year-old graft of what was supposed to be’Sensu’. By now I am certain that it is something else. After doing a lot of research, I am inclined to believe that it is the palmatum cultivar ‘Tsuri nishiki’. Does anyone have pictures of that variety? I would like to confirm its identity. First 3 pictures are from this year, the others are from previous springs and summers. Fall color is unremarkable (hence I don’t have pictures). The tree is remarkably vigorous, for six years it has grown more than 8 ft. Strong upright habit. I have removed few smaller branches from the bottom.
Forgot to mention that this tree is my favorite named variety Japanese maple from seven cultivars that are growing in our yard. I am not planning on getting new ones. The rest are all seedlings.
The other six I have are ‘Rhode Island Red’, ‘Shin Deshojo’, ‘Ukigumo’, ‘Beni tsukasa’, Shirazz and ‘Jordan’.
Good morning Nik, I think you may have hit the nail on the head with an ID. The description and your photos definitely sound promising. As we all know, with so many cultivars out there and an enormous amount of seedings, it's is often very difficult once a tag is lost or miss labeled at a nursery. I presume you have checked that it is a graft? I'm sure you have. Just in case it's a seedling. So as I don't have Tsuri nishiki, I have checked all my books and in Vertrees fourth edition page 263 it states the leaves are medium to large mainly 7 lobed and widely deeply divided. The one characteristic is that the leaves are sometimes twisted at various angles. So this is something to check on your tree. It also states that the leaves have a firm texture, so something else to check. Growing to 13ft tall and hardy with a fall colour of yellow orange-gold and crimson blended together should help with ID later in the year. Sorry I could not help further.
Thanks so much D! This is reassuring. Definitely a grafted tree, leaves are larger than most of my other palmatums (except a seedling with huge leaves), almost all are 7-lobed. The leaves become firm in mid-summer. The twisting of the lobes is there, but not prominent. Fall color is all over the spectrum, although mostly orange and not that vibrant. In this forum, @ROEBUK has posted photos of ‘Tsuri nishiki’ in the past. I hope he comments. The lobes on his tree’s leaves appear wider. A couple of other members pictures seem completely different from the Vertrees’ description. Pictures that I can find online on nursery websites are all over the place. I hope @emery has it in his Aceretum and shares pictures as well. Or at least chimes in on the identification.
On it Derek as you speak !! Had this one quite a few years back now but sold it on some while back now , not enough room and too many trees !! Had it in the ground for some years which brought it on size wise , but the colours were a bit non descript to be honest so dug it back up after a few years in the ground and back into a container , then saw some very nice colours the following years after that . Knew the colours were nice from when i fist purchased it from Hippo so thought it would come back again.
Thank you for posting these pictures, ROEBUK! Yours and mine definitely look different. The Vertrees description is “Narrow and almost lanceolate, each lobe ….. is less than 1 cm wide.” Can you recall how wide the lobes were? Lobes overlapping does not fit the definition for the cultivar. Hippopottering Japanese Maple Nursery seems to be selling something similar to your plant. What they have in their photos is not matching the cultivar description.
While I do not grow 'Tsuri nishiki', it does not for me look 100% right for that cultivar. This link has what I consider poster child pics of the leaves and I do not see the same defining characteristics. If your tree has darker green leaves and more twisting than shown in your pics, then maybe... (Agree that the Hippopottering site seems to show something different entirely.) One that seems somewhat similar is 'Elegans', and I am sure there are others with a similar look. Also, if and when your tree sets seeds, you will be able to definitively rule out the possibility of 'Sensu' if the seeds are not held upright above the leaves. Anyway, good luck with your search.
Hi @maf , yes, I have seen these pictures before, and they are the closest to what I have, I think. I have not seen flowers yet, and I found out that this cultivar does not set seed in the US. Which is disappointing, because I would like to grow seedlings from it. Again, I don’t have pictures from late summer or fall, but the description matches. Dark bluish-green stiff leaves in late summer/fall. I have posted some pictures on the ‘Sensu’ shirasawanum thread previously. I should correct my postings to indicate that it is not that. Elegans it is definitely not.
The twisted lobes are characteristic for the late summer growth, which looks very different than the spring growth.
My JM collection is nowhere near the size of lots of people here! I have a lot of other maples, though... In this case, have neither of these. I remember passing on Sensu a while ago. Cheers, -E
@maf , here is the study about the seeds: https://repository.upenn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/dd6eb1ca-7462-4963-a02d-dabd03f62d3f/content
Hey Nik, that's quite interesting, though I'm not sure there are enough individuals to make some of the data meaningful. E.g., I get tons of seed on Koto-no-ito. Good to show the difference in a cut test between viable and non-viable seed, all in all well put together! Shows why so many use Sango kaku as a source for understock...
I can’t help with your question, but what I would say is the growth rate you achieve between amazing natural rock formations seems phernominal..I thought the same the other day when I saw you post
I am a bit shocked myself… and I have watered the trees only for few months in their first year after planting. Never after that. The main reason I placed them in those rock crevices is that the deer have hard time getting at them. Only minor deer damage on rare occasions. The most surprising aspect for me is that the maples do not seem to mind the heat reflected from the rocks on sunny summer days… I myself feel uncomfortable if I stand on top of the rocks for more than 10 minutes on a hot summer day. The maples don’t just manage, they appear to love these conditions. (Our relative humidity is very high year round, I am sure that helps.)
Just stepped outside to take few quick pictures before the rain starts. This is how narrow the space between the rocks is where this tree grows. The graft union is at ground level, barely visible now.
@Julie_K and @maf , the reason why i don’t think it’s’Elegans’ is the leaves are not as deeply divided. In ‘Elegans’ they are divided all the way to the leaf base. This is not what I see with this plant. I agree that the late spring and early summer colors and the general leaf shape are very similar (and very elegant, though I have only seen pictures of ‘Elegans’, never observed it in person). Thanks so much for trying to help me identify this maple!
@maf , here are side by side one of my pictures and one from the Essence of the tree site. Don’t they look quite similar? The mature leaf pictures they have (3rd and 4th) could be the second flush in late summer. I hope I do get flowers this spring, then I will be more confident.
I will also send a compilation of images of my tree to Essence of the tree and the Morris Arboretum (they have 3 specimens in the ground) to ask if they think the ID is plausible. Does anyone know if Westonbirt has ‘Tsuri nishiki’? I could try contacting them too.
As a last resort, I could just do a day trip to the Morris Arboretum and see the trees in person (and take some pictures).
The mature leaf was my concern. If you say that later in summer your mature leaves get dark and twisted like the leaves in the Essence of the Tree site or Vertrees book, then I would agree it is a close match. The pics you posted in this thread did not show this feature. According to their online database, the collection at Westonbirt includes 1x 'Tsuri nishiki', 2x 'Elegans and 0x 'Sensu'. If I have time later I will look through my collection of pictures from Westonbirt and see if I have any of 'Tsuri nishiki'. If so, I will post them. You will have a hard time getting a definitive ID answer from a reputable nursery or arboretum, especially based on photographs. There are just too many cultivars for them to say anything definitively without risking their reputation with a bad ID. They could maybe rule out some possible ID's, eg. if the pictures show a feature non-conformative to one of the cultivars in question, but it is highly unlikely they would go as far as to say your tree is definitely 'Tsuri nishiki' (or 'Elegans' or 'Sensu'). People like me, on the other hand, or others posting in this thread, are willing to conjecture with no risk of losing a professional reputation, and because it is fun and interesting. I have been in a simlilar position myself. Off the top of my head I can think of 2 cultivars I received as young grafts over 20 years ago that were obviously not true to what was written on the label. One of them I was 95% sure what it was after original investigation, and now 100% sure after the nursery in question finally got a website with pictures and I could see what they had for that cultivar. The other one I still have no clue! It is a beautiful location to grow your maples. People often say Japanese maples are understory trees but this is not 100% true. They grow on steep mountainsides in their natural habitat and are often in full sun for most of the day. Maybe there is heat reflected from rocks there too? The humidity at your location no doubt helps (Japan is humid too). In any case, I think they will be well adapted to growing their roots between and under rocks due to the typical topology of steep hillsides. The only problem I see is if the maple gets so large in the future that the trunk is pincered by the rocks either side of the gap. Hopefully there is open space on at least one side for the trunk to expand into.
Westonbirt Section 51 is showing Tsuri nishiki I've checked my photos and unfortunately, I don't have it. Hugh Angus of the Maple Society and before of Westonbirt, might be a good bet to contact.
