This is where I’ve landed on identification would you agree? With close examination the serrations are double: deep aeration followed by an intermediate shallow serration, V&G bible describe this as an attribute. Overall leaf form looks consistent. Last photo is from V&G bible
I think you are pretty close R. Mine is on this thread. Acer palmatum 'Chitoseyama' More like the Vertrees book photos rather than yours tbh that is a shade darker.
@Acerholic thanks D, very helpful. I have two of these..both leaf out a red turning quickly to purple by May.. your chitoseyama looks like it leafs out bronze in spring..back to the drawing board!
It maybe location though R. It really is so difficult to tie some down, as I'm finding doing the synonyms thread.
There are quite a lot of cultivars with similar leaf shape and colour to that. May be hard to come up with a definitive ID unless you can identify some unique feature or combination of features that your your trees display. Out of interest, if you have two of them what did you buy them as?
Thanks @maf I bought them both from the same nursery as 4 foot trees, both grafted, neither had labels . I had previously thought they were sumi nagashi..maybe they are..
I feel your pain. I just planted a tree I bought 20 years ago as young graft of 'Issai nishiki'. Well, it hasn't developed the pine bark effect yet so it can't be that. Maybe I will never be able to ID it....
@maf Agreed..interesting that we become more and more OCD about identification.. I think your pine bark would be evident by now! Unrelated to any of the above I saw a 3 foot Ikandi on my travels last month but it hadn’t leafed out at the time.. it was eye wateringly expensive.. I thought I might take a detour to “just have a look at it” on the weekend but having phoned the garden centre just now no-one can recall it..odd..I didn’t think it would fly off the shelf at £385 for a 3 foot tree!!!
I don't remember the details but I do know there are 2 forms of 'Chitose yama' around. What I have under that name (and verified by van Gelderen, who sold it) is less indented and stays redder. The one usually sold in England is IIRC referred to as the "Exbury form". The original is from the 1882 list. I don't really know what mine is, but Cor is usually pretty good at cultivar IDs.
Yes, I am pretty sure the version of 'Chitose yama' featured in the books is the original redder one from Japan and known in USA etc. God knows why people introduce new plants and recycle the name of an old one. BTW @dicky5ash your tree looks similar to 'Sherwood Flame' also; and maybe even 'Burgundy Lace' or 'Beni kagami'... I am sure there are many more similar trees too...
