Well, I thought, I've got this one right, as I have the Parks Board's name on the tag of this street tree. But I see that it might be an Acer rubrum cultivar called 'Bowhall' as developed by Scanlon (I see one place that lists a 'Bowhall'/Scanlon, called "Bowhall maple"). Or maybe the cultivar name is really 'Bowhall/Scanlon', as it's shown on the tag and on Specimen Trees' website. There's also a cultivar called 'Scanlon', so as 'Bowhall/Scanlon', could it also be some sort of cross between the two? It was good of them to leave the tag on anyway. I was surprised just to learn that it's a red maple. Looks like it should be a good street tree.
'Scanlon' is a sport of 'Bowhall'. Apparently 'Scanlon' was sold under the 'Bowhall' name for a period prior to its official renaming, and afterwards, so when people see trees called by one name or the other now, there is no certainty as to which clone is being viewed --A. Jacobson, North American Landscape Trees (1996, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley)
Attached a short bio of Ed Scanlon. From it: Mutual dependence ensued, with Michalko the idea man and Scanlon the ex- pediter of those ideas. Michalko, for example, had observed for several years a columnar maple tree with ascending branches growing along a road at the Bowhall Nursery in the Cleveland area. When shown the tree by Michalko, Scan- lon promptly sent budwood. collected from the tree by Michalko, to an Oregon nursery for propagation. Thus began production of what was dubbed the Bowhall maple, which Scanlon eventually patented (PP. 1722) and sold as Acer rubrum 'Scanlon' or the Scanlon red maple (Scanlon, 1974b; Scanlon, 1976). So according to this, Bowhall and Scanlon are the same tree. However other sources are not in full agreement. From The "Checklist of Cultivated Maples I, Acer rubrum L.): BOWHALL (E.H. Scanlon, Trees Mag. 1 1(5): 10-11, 22-231951) — pyramid. Probably propagated from parent tree described by E.H. Scanlon, Trees Mag. 8(6): 1 1. 1948 Original tree with 15 ft. crown spread at 35 ft. height. Named for road on which discovered. SCANLON (E.H. Scanlon & Assoc, Olmsted Falls, Ohio, Wholesale Cat. No. 7, Fall 1 955-Spring 1956, p. 4) — compactly branched, conical shaped tree, with brilliant orange-umber and red autumn leaf coloration. Plant Pa- tent 1 722, July 1, 1958. Named for Edward H. Scanlon, Olmsted Falls, Ohio. -E
What an interesting article, emery, for the information on Scanlon himself and on his take on street-by-street monoculture (he was for it, but for medium-sized low maintenance trees) and the idea of asking homeowners what they wanted to see planted (he was against it). Thanks for posting that. So from what the article said maybe I should have tried Acer rubrum Bowhall/'Scanlon' (that's a joke, because I don't think there is such a naming structure, but I think it follows from what was said).
Jacobson also lists and describes them separately, with historical information including dates. See his book. I reproduced here only what appeared to be the most pertinent content.
