I am familiar with most of the so called Japanese maples and their cultivars; and as well the ubiquituous Acer rubrum and its cultivars; the sycamores and the pseudoplatanus maples; I also can easily identify our native acer circinatum and large-leaved acer of our forests. However, when I drive around Vancouver I occasionally see beautiful established maples in gardens that are approximately 30 feet tall and rounded. They are not used by the municipalities for street trees and hence are not columnar at all. They have fresh lovely green foliage. Not dark or murky in colour. They are graceful, but much more dense and tree like than many japanese maples. I have read and re-read many tree books hoping that I will 'catch on' to identifying this type of maple, but to no avail. Any suggestions? Is there a great lower mainland nursery that carries many types of non-japanese maples that I could browe through? Many thanks for your time, Sitka
Hi - just to let you know, UBC does have the largest (i.e., most species) maple collection in Canada, so we might be worth a visit to check out some of the various species.
If you are seeing multiple mature individuals from a car, chances are these are not something rare. Collect a specimen and take it to a nursery or collection for identification. If a nursery clerk can't give you a lead surely you can find out at UBC or VanDusen, by walking around and looking at their maples on your own if nothing else.
Dear Daniel and Ron: Re Maples Thanks for replying. I will take both pieces of advice. I do go to UBC gardens, but not frequently enough and I tend not to take notes when there. I will do so soon.
http://www.botany.ubc.ca/facilities/arboretum/MAP.HTM an interesting link for locating some of the trees on the grounds at UBC.
If you can post a picture of a leaf from these trees, I'm sure someone here would be able to identify it. ;-)
