Maple flowers can be very different : Acer tataricum ssp. ginnala -the flowers appear after the leaves (?) : Acer palmatum 'O-sakazuki'- on most palm/oenum, the flowers appear slightly before the leaves :
It is incredible how we better see aphids on photos than in any other situation to observe them. (seyriu and emerald lace).
Yes, and I have other maples where they swarm on new shoots like sugar-addicted zombies. I'm waiting for the ladybirds, haven't seen any so far...
Went to a park today, and I'm pretty sure I have some seedlings from this one, labelled Acer palmatum 'Dissectum' from this one:
Acer circinatum 'Burgundy Jewel' : Surprisingly, it doesn't show any "burgundy" colour this year. A photo from May 2021 :
Been waiting to see your 'Burgundy Jewel', thanks! circinatum slowly opening 'Hubbs Red Willow' a week ago and today
Norway Maple has the best flowering display of any maple I know. The flowers come out just before and as the leaves start to expand. The whole trees stand out like yellow beacons.
Norway maples do flower beautifully, there are neighborhoods in Paris where they're illuminated by the street lights, quite magical. I had been hoping to get a picture of platanoides 'Holata' this spring, a nice dwarf with dark red leaves and contrasting deep yellow flowers. Nothing this year though. Some my favorite flowers are on A. laxiflorum and of course A. sinopurpurascens; A. mospessulanum (and section) also put on a very good spring show. They're shown in reverse order here.
I thought I could post photos of Acer negundo flowers, but mine didn't have any this year. And to my surprise, my only Acer palmatum in the ground has none either. In the previous years, it had hundreds of samaras. All in all, here, not a very good year for flowers, and seeds in the end...
Indeed, the male flowers are always so showy too. Ours started to go, but then we had the big freeze and they all fell off. Here's a picture from 2016, a year when I concentrated on photographing maple flowers.
Villa Taranto's flowers are not very attractive but their samaras are ! @emery. I must said the plant from seed you gave me some years ago, have for the first time some few samaras this year; they have the same typical shape and 2 colors, red and yellow, as grafted Villa Taranto on this picture .
Acer japonicum 'Green Cascade' already has wings! They were like this a week ago. Acer circinatum today
Sango kaku (Senkaki) flowers. The tree is literally covered in flowers, I would not be lying to say there are more than ten thousand on this three or four metre tall SK.
My first posting on this thread, have been meaning to, so today when I saw my Brilliantissimum, I thought 'a photo or two to share at last' re maple flowers.
Here's something I haven't seen before. Looking through the fading flowers on A. sinopurpurascens, I first saw some half- and then a few full-samaras. P.C. de Jong teaches us that Section Lithocarpa is dioecious, with occasional protandrous (mostly male but rarely male->female) inflorescences. I think that must be what we're seeing here: the flowers developing the fruit very clearly have stamens still, only dropping off as the growing fruit pushes them away. I wonder if there is any chance of viable seed? Apparently the female tree at Rogow rarely sets good seed, though I know they occasionally sell some. Another interesting thing is the "horn", usually expected to be seen on diabolicum, under the nutlets. It looks less neat than what is seen on diabolicum, but I've never seen sinopurpurascens fruit in formation, so I don't know if this will fall off, or if perhaps the plant is badly labeled!
