Acer oliverianum ssp. formosanum - private collection. April 24, 2002; December 11, 2003; October 10, 2005.
This maple is once again called A. serrulatum. Reference The Maple Society species group, Accepted Names, version 7 Aug 2020. Might the moderators please change the thread title, TIA.
New to this forum but don’t quite understand the post above saying this is Acer serrulatum. Acer Oliverianum is also on the same accepted reference list noted above. I need some education. How do we ascertain it’s one and not the other? The nurseryman I bought it from is well known and knowledgeable on maple names and classifications. Additionally, everything I can find on the web regarding the tree, lists it as Oliverianum. Help me understand. Now on to more pics: This is always the very first tree of my nearly 40 maples to leaf out. Pics were taken this morning. Frost usually damages some of the leaves. If you look closely, there is some frost evident on the tender leaves even this morning.
I changed the thread title at the request of @emery who is vice chairman of the Maple Society and is extremely knowledgeable about the new naming. I am sure he will advise you. Wonderful photos yet again from you, yes the Spring frosts are always a worry every year, but we just have to live with them.
Hi @Ultraman , sorry about the confusion. Until quite recently, that is last year, your maple was referred to as you've done: A. oliverianum ssp formosanum. In fact that's how we have it labeled in the garden here too, because we haven't gotten around to changing it yet (along with an annoying number of other maples, too). In 2017 the Maple Society formed a group of foremost experts (including from here at UBC) to survey maple taxonomy and determine which names are accepted with a broad consensus, which are wrong (for various reasons) and what the correct name is. This work was published in Aug. 2020 and now forms the basis for accepted Acer taxonomy worldwide, though of course that doesn't mean you won't still see other names used. Acer oliverianum is one maple, another is Acer serrulatum (= Acer oliverianum ssp formosanum, a maple from Taiwan). Acer serrulatum Hayata 1911 was grouped (lumped, as taxonomists would say) as a subspecies of A. oliverianum by A.E. Murray in his publication of Kalmia, 1969, based on work from Koidzumi This lumping was generally accepted and so that appears as the name in de Jong's classification in Maples of the World, van Gelderen et al. However in 2008, molecular phylogenetic analysis and Xu et al (FOC)) showed that the two maples are less closely related than Murray and others believed: therefore the name given by Hayata took precedence, and A. oliverianum ssp formosanum (as known to most of us) was raised in rank to a separate species and is again called Acer serrulatum. I hope this clears it up. The name Acer oliverianum ssp formosanum was correct when it was sold to you, and until recently. But now that name is changed back to A. serrulatum, as it was called prior to 1969. Acer oliverianum is an entirely different maple, though there are similarities between the two. We also find it is one of the very earliest maples into leaf, matched only by a few of the Acer tataricum ssp and few outliers like Acer rubescens and Acer mandshuricum. But unlike these others serrulatum is very tender and freezes every year at least once; as a results our grafted individual is kind of puny and has never grown well. I've been trying to get sound seed from Taiwan for years! best, -Emery
Extremely informative and enlightening information. Thanks for the clarification! Much appreciated! Looks like I’ll be changing the identifier name tag on mine now too!
I have these three seedlings. Acer oliverianum, Acer oliverianum ssp formosanum, Acer serrulatum, I don't know which is which, but I like them all ;°)