Hello everybody, Last year I bought some seeds of Acer Rubrum (October Glory cultivar) because I was fascinated by some pictures of this tree that I saw on websites. The seeds appeared to be real acer rubrum seeds ( smaller than sugar maple ones). Now my tree is one year old but looking to its leaves I was a bit suspicious because they seem not to look like Acer Rubrum leaves that I saw on the net. Acer Rubrum appear to have more rounded leaves: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=10395 This is not a typical tree of my country (Italy) so I cannot check against another tree here. Can someone help me to identify if this is a real Acer Rubrum? Thank you for you help!
I am pretty sure its not October glory. As you write too, OG has more rounded leaves, but it could be Acer Rubrum cultivar. Maybe 'Bowhall'.
Tommy, just to clarify, it can't be a cultivar because it comes from seed. The seed of October Glory may come pretty true (I have no idea if it does) but the seedlings will not be October Glory. To get the name they have to be propagated clonally, by graft or rooting for example. They could be A. rubrum seedlings for all that I can tell, I've only seen them in the wild, not grown them myself. There is a wide morphological variation in rubrum, especially with young seedlings, so the fact that they are very deeply cut doesn't necessarily mean they are something else.
Emery is correct. You need to wait til the second year to be able to tell for sure. However, Acer rubrum leaves are normally much less "toothed" and don't have lobes that point backwards. If you hold them by the stem they look almost tulip-like. See below...
one key is the autumn color if is rubrum are red :)btw your are similar to rubrum drummondii that i have together October glory,if you live in central Italy contact me for one visit :)
With those leaf edges might be a Freeman maple, the commonly planted hybrid between red and silver maples.
