I thought this Acer platanoides 'Crispum', also called 'Laciniatum' or Eagles Claw Maple, was the one described by Gerald Straley in Trees of Vancouver, at Lagoon Drive in the Stanley Park Pitch & Putt. It's just a bit north of the entrance, very close to the Atsumori cherry I was really looking for. But I don't think that's the NW corner of the golf course where he said the only one seen in the city is, so maybe there are two, as I'd call this the south corner. Straley describes it as "certainly more of a curiosity than attractive". This one gives the appearance of being sick, with all the leaf edges curled under.
The synonyms are a little confusing looking at the leaf photos. Hillier's Manual describes "Acer platanoides 'Laciniatum' "Eagles Claw Maple". An erect-growing, large tree, the leaves fan shaped at the base, five-veined and deeply five-lobed, the lobes ending in long, slender, claw-like points. C 1683" with no mention of 'Crispum'. Van Gelderen's "Maples of the World" has A. p. 'Crispum' as " Lauth {1781} Germany. Leaf margins crisped. Lost from cultivation" and describes 'Laciniatum' as "Sutherland {1683}. Great Britain. Leaves deeply cut, like a bird's claw. It is a small tree, 10-12m tall." Interesting, seems like possibly two different trees going by the descriptions or similar names of two different cultivars.
"Crisped" like fried? I'm guessing the word means something else botanically, but these margins do look singed; there are claw-like points, though no deep cuts or lobes. The leaf photo I posted looks like it could be the one from which Straley drew his illustration, it's so similar. Someone can let me know if I should change the title.
Guessing your photo is A. p. 'Crispum', just not sure how the synonyms referred to in "Trees of Vancouver" fit. Nice to see the photos.
Here's (rainy day) autumn colour from the same tree as in the first posting. I could never figure out exactly where northwest corner of the golf course was, but it just occurred to me as I was trying to describe the location of this tree I found today that it might be the one Straley mentioned. It's on a path down to Lagoon Drive and it's north of the golf course, sort-of near the path on the west side. Yup, could be the one. Anyway, there are definitely at least two of them.
I was looking through my sorted list of the "Trees and Shrubs of Stanley Park", a chapter in the Natural History Society's Natural History of Stanley Park (Discovery Press, 1988), and I noticed that it lists an Acer cucullatum exactly where the first tree I posted is located, and also another where the other tree I posted is located, the site of the 'Crispum' in the Straley book. The drawing in the book for 'Crispum' looks like the leaves I posted, but the photos on the internet for Acer cucullatum also look like my leaves. I see that platanoides 'Crispum' photos look quite different. I thought this tree was looking pretty good, crisped leaf edges not withstanding. Should I rename this thread?? (I mean, should maf rename it)
I am not really familiar with platanoides cultivars so cannot say what is best. When I searched google images for "platanoides Crispum" there was one hit from Esveld which was different, lots of pictures taken by you of these trees, an Italian website which lists Crispum as a synonym for Cucullatum and not much else. I am quite happy to merge this thread with the Cucullatum one, but would prefer a second opinion before doing so.
if is 100% platanodides, for me is Cucullatum;is possible too natural hybridize but is rare ,near this there is another maples?
Thanks, Alex. Regarding hybrid possibilities, I can't remember exactly right now - I'm sure there are a lot of other maples in the area, but at this corner of the golf course, only this one 'Crispum' or 'Cucullatum' (we're calling these synonyms now?). Of course I have no idea what the conditions were where this originated, but I'm assuming this would have been a tree the Parks Board planted.
We never did sort out the name of this, but I have photos of emerging leaves and male flowers now. This is a lot later than most other A. platanoides flowers I've seen, at least male ones.
Here is one samara from the tree in the previous posting, which I guess we're calling A. platanoides 'Cucullatum'. These are fresh new leaves, same date as six years ago. They don't look any better or any worse than they looked then.
Same tree as in the above two postings, lots of samaras on the ground, which are more widely spaced than the one samara in the previous posting. The leaves look pretty good considering that we haven't had any rain for two months.
