I would like to put a Japanese name for A. sieboldianum on the tree plaque. However my sources (the usual, MOW, Vertrees/Gregory etc) have several names listed. MOW lists Ko hau uchiwa kaede (Wikipedia's choice) as pertaining particularly to small leaved forms, so that doesn't seem appropriate. That leaves Aiai gasa, Itaya meigetsu, Kibana uchiwa kaede. I would pick the latter since it at least has kaede (maple) in it, but my Japanese is minimal, so... Goggle seems to think it is "yellow flowered maple," which would fit. Can anyone help? Thanks -E
Acer japonicum var. Sieboldianum (Miquel) Franchet et Savatier Acer sieboldianum Miquel Acer sieboldianum f. microphyllum (Maxim.) Hara I listed the above on purpose. I learned this Maple by the first and third variety form listings. The middle listing is the modern day (recognized less than fifty years) shortened version of the much older (top listing) and once widely recognized in Japan written form. It was understood for many years until recently that the forma plant was the smaller leafed Maple in this case as there are other forma Maples in this series. I believe that some plants of Siebold's Maple have yellow, cream or white flowers so stating that Siebold's Maple is a yellow flowered Maple does not apply to the entire realm of forma, variety, cultivar and variant form plants. The old translated form as I remember it, the consensus form from more than one botanical book out of Japan listed Acer sieboldianum as Ko uchiwa kaede (no hyphens between the words then). Much of the more recent text (the last five to ten years especially) errantly to some of us list the name with the hyphens such as Ko-hauchiwa-kaede. Even in Japan, once cornered or directly asked the Japanese will refer to the Maple by the old spelling sans the hyphens. I believe in the Vertrees second edition book there are listings of synonym names that were considered to be cultivars at one time. Thus Ko hauchiwa kaede was considered to be a cultivar years ago in Japan. I learned Itaya meigetsu as being a cultivar and this Maple may still be found in very select collections. Jim
Thanks both. Itaya-meigetsu or Ko-hauchiwa-kaede is how Ogata has it, which is a good source for me. As for flower colour, Bean has "easily distinguished by the yellow (not purple-red) flowers," which is the prevailing opinion (although I don't doubt there is some natural variation plant to plant).
