Acer pentaphyllum

I was surprised by the Maple Society's tree at Hillier Gardens (q.v.) dropping its leaves so early. It made me think about Acer pentaphyllum - although a rarity I have one in my garden and it seems a late bud breaker but holds on to its leaves longer than many. My tree was a gift from
Furzey Gardens
near Southampton when the Maple Society paid a visit there a decade or more ago - the manager at the time was a Maple Society member and laid out a table full of different maples for visiting members to help themselves at the end and it was pot luck for me. My plant is now 3 or 4 metres tall, just beginning to colour (it is not showy) and looking contented; it has never flowered.

I have heard it said Hillier Gardens has not had much luck with A. pentaphyllum (I could check the Dead plants on BG-Base I guess but not from home). They are trying again, the plant looking fine last year:
Acer pentaphyllum Accession no: 2011.0268
Qualifier Area Area name Height DBH Date
B BU200 Upper Brentry 200 2.3 m 0.7 cm 7 Oct 2014

 

mine graft (i presume) on pseudoplatanus have more resistance to dry condition and clay soil

 

I have one from the same source -- Esveld -- as Alex, which I planted out this past year. Yes, it is grafted on pseudoplatanus. It still has leaves on it, though most of the maples here are bare now.

I have 4 seedlings as well, from the Australian seed, that are around 100/120 and so not ready to go in the ground yet. They seem like healthy plants, and only one has dropped leaf yet. I hope to be able to plant them together in a little grove.

 

what about fall colors? by seeds are better of the graft ? mine not very interesting :(

 

however is more intereting maple !!no visitor of my aceretum believes it is a maple :D

 

Alex, grafting is an interesting thought which had not occurred to me, so I checked it out.
1. My penta - I assume this is not a graft
2. My aesculus - I assume this is a graft
Aesculus X Neglecta 'Erythroblastos' from Burncoose Nurseries
3, 4, 5. Hillier Gardens Brentry Upper, BU200, GPS 37796 23430 - I assume this is not grafted. The colourful tree in the background was collected from the wild by botanist Allen J Coombes Allen J. Coombes, Timber Press author

 

Acer pseudoplatanus like rootstock is more strong, for example i have clay soil and general dry conditions and are very well tollerate (thanks for pics)

 

Further to my comment that A. pentaphyllum may not do well at Hillier Gardens, they have lost six accession numbers, though three of those were not planted, not making it out of the propagation unit (PU). One of the PU plants was listed as having verticillium wilt, not uncommon with acers, I believe; this may be due to the condition of the plant when it was acquired.

 

22o2o4 This is the same Acer pentaphyllum in November 2021 doing well at ten years old

 

I eventually planted 5 good sized pentaphyllum in a grove, where they performed adequately during the first year. However this year we had, (again), a deep spring frost. None of the pentaphyllum were in leaf, so I thought they would be OK. But of the 5 seedlings, only one leafed out eventually, and that one from the base of the plant; the rest had frozen. They had been through harder cold, but the lateness of the event apparently was fatal. The grafted plant (which is in a different part of the garden) lived, but also died back to need the graft. We'll see this spring if any of them make it.

Meanwhile I germinated a large group of pentaphyllum seed last spring, so I have a lot of young plants. Hopefully most or at least some will make it through the winter, so I will be able to begin again... I already had 3 or 4 seedlings in their second year. Still, losing the larger, planted seedlings was very disappointing.

 

I think this seed should be high priority on the exchange. It looks like it's struggling everywhere.

D

 

You can get young trees from :

Acer pentaphyllum - Erable de Rock - Florama

Or :

acer pentaphyllum acer pentaphyllum de Maillot-Erable - La boutique MAILLOT-ERABLE

 

There is good seed around now. Fran, the former secretary of the MS, has a plant where the seed is very fertile, for one.

Gah @AlainK , now I'll have to get a few more plants, I could use an ungrafted hyrcanum!

 

Not to the UK unfortunately....

D

 

Maybe from Esveld then ?

Pictures and description of Acer pentaphyllum - www.esveld.nl

 

Not there either. Just a description.

D

 

Very difficult (ie expensive) for UK individuals to import live plants from mainland Europe post brexit unfortunately.

 

Anyway all the Esveld plants (when he has them) are grafted onto sycamore, A. pseudoplatanus.

This works fine sometimes, as it has for Alex's grafted plant and indeed my own; but quite a lot of the time the pseudoplatanus grafts simply fail to thrive.

I'd be happy to try and send a small pentaphyllum to you @Acerholic, but I understand you might not want to because of the legal issues. (I can say, immaterially I'm sure, that such mailings do sometimes get through...)

I don't know of a UK plant that's providing viable seed, but someone else may. Now that the UK seed exchange is only using UK sourced seed, that's really the only option.

 

i 'm not very interested for sowing o airlayring o by cutting but my friend Phil yes! and he have very good result with my seed ,airlayring o cutting are three method easy for this maple -is exapansive in EU too pot 2liter 52 euros (one famous nursery two week ago!) for flower and seeds is important chimical element the Boro .my advice is one fertilize with this element-i have one by cutting original autumn colors are present but in this moment is in pot

 

Totally agree M. But looking on the bright side, perhaps it will stop the importing of any diseased plants.

D

 

Very kind as usual E. But atm everything is just too difficult.

D