Today I was closely examining many of my trees of acer palmatum 'Red Emperor' in 3-7 gallons. I found 10 trees that showed pubescence. When a one leaf on a tree showed pubescence, every leaf on the tree showed it as well. These little hairs were not only on the underside of the leaves, but were also on the stems of the leaf. I tried my darnedest to take some photos for the forum, but could not get the hairs to show up. I have lots of maples and have never noticed pubescence on acer palmatum. I have always located pubescense on many other species such as sieboldianum and pseudosieboldianum, but never on palmatum. Is something going on here? Has anyone else spotted a palmatum acting pubescent? Is this an environmental thing? Should I be concerned?
If you are talking about pubescence on older leaves then that is unusual. A few palmatum types have the furry new foliage, eg. 'Dissectum Nigrum' and 'Azuma murasaki'. I sometimes wonder if these varieties have been crossed out to the related species noted for pubescent leaves.
Maf, It is actually pubescence on both the old growth and the new growth. I spent over 30 minutes just looking at the different 'Red Emperor' trees. Some of them contained this pubescence, while others did not. I have recently started paying even more attention to detail and this phenomenon really intrigues me. Even though I have plenty of cultivars of Japanese maples, those two maples you mentioned are not cultivars that I have experience with. If these characteristics show up again the spring, I might re-apply micro-nutrients to see if this might be cause by any type of nutrient deficiency. Not all the 'Red Emperor' showed this characteristic, so I do have some concern. If anyone has experience with unusual pubescence on palmatums, please let me know. Thanks, Tim
Tim, That sounds very different to the pubescence I have seen. With 'Dissectum Nigrum' for example it is very noticeable on the new leaves but soon disappears once they mature: It seems odd that some of the 'Red Emperor's showed it and some not, maybe they are not all the same type or come from different mother trees. Keep us informed, very interested to hear about these.
