British Columbia: slightly hurt? Full Moon Maple, Japanese Maple 'Aureum' Acer shirasawanum

I know this could have gone under Maples, but I think it's a situation perhaps best known to Vancouver BC and area gardeners. Apologies if I'm not right.
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Edit: The day after I originally posted this, I added 4 of the 5 pictures included. These show this year's leaf shape, this year's wings; and 2 pictures of stem damage, the severity of which is open to assessment. Thanks for any help regarding ID and care.
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When a friend decided her 4½-foot Full Moon Maple was diseased, I enthusiastically acquired it. She had had it in a container on her balcony for a summer or two, in South Vancouver. The tree received lots of light. It had beautiful leaves, but she said there was something wrong with the growth. I thought she had pruned the tree, although recently she said she had not. In any case, I took the tree and immediately repotted it, about two months ago while it was still dormant.

I had no choice about repotting it, as I was given the tree but not its container. I bought a big blue 90L recycle bin from London Drugs, made sure it had good drainage at the bottom, covered it brown to make it vanish at a distance, and planted the maple as best I could in such a way as to make the tree not terribly aware it had been transplanted at all. Its new home is on our balcony, 8 storeys up near Stanley Park in the West End, with a fairly sheltered NW exposure.

My plants here generally flourish. It's a 50 square foot jungle, with honeysuckles and fuschias plus seven hummingbird feeders making our tiny place colibri-friendly. The maple is beside a bamboo that shelters it quite well; it won't incur very much wind or rain where it is, and it receives some sunshine in late afternoons. Even so, I can't give it as much sun as it had in South Vancouver.

The maple duly acquired its new leaves and now seems healthy and happy, BUT for a number of bare twigs that did not acquire leaves at all. There are no half-hearted leaves: the tree seems mostly beautiful, with gorgeous leaves everywhere, except where they are totally absent. I can't see any apparent tendency to suggest why quite a few branches are without leaves, except, in my mind, a number of those small branches do look as though they were trimmed. I think they were.

I've just left things as they are. I am very slow to prune or chop or hack or modify anything at the best of times. If this maple was somehow abused, maybe God has some clever ideas and needs a bit of time. The tree looks beautiful to me, and half a dozen different species of birds have perched on its twigs, leafless or not, without any complaints at all.

But maybe you have some ideas, too, so I'm adding a picture showing the worst-looking twigs on the tree. Will they eventually come up with new leaves? Next year? (Please note that there are several bare lateral (and curving) twigs in the photo belonging to our "twig trellis", which are not part of the living tree. The maple twigs in question are the SMALL twigs.)

I'd love to hear from you if you know what's wrong. Meantime, I'm just letting it Be. Thank you.

 

The Japanese maples can often suffer some natural dieback.
It doesn't look like a Full Moon maple though, they have more lobes, like a Vine maple.

 

Thank you. It may be something other than a Full Moon maple; that was the name I was given. So the plot thickens. . . .

If this is natural dieback, that is sort of good news. Suggestions for care are welcomed; I'll just leave it as it is unless someone suggests otherwise.

Thanks again.

 

They like cool, moist, well drained roots. The roots can fry in a dark unshaded pot in the sun.

 

This is good news too. It was in a dark pot in the sun. Now it's in a dark pot in cool shade, and the pot and the earth will rarely be in any direct sun. It will be much cooler, earth- and root-wise, than before.

The leaves, too, would have very often been in really hot sun formerly. Now they will be in "adequate" sun, but not much. I think the new conditions might compare with most vine maples in the Stanley Park forest, for instance.

Thank you so much.

 

You're welcome, sounds good. The dieback could be directly related to fried roots then.

 

If the leaves are cupped at the base and it has brilliant red fall colour you might want to compare it with A. palmatum 'Osakazuki' to see if it matches.

 

As I recall, the leaves turned to a very beautiful yellow-orange-reddish, all colours together on each leaf, toward the fall. They were not solid red. It was a very pretty effect.

It is dark now, but tomorrow I hope to post several new photos.

 

Next day. . . .
I took more pictures this morning, and added 4 to make 5 here. Maybe the leaf shape and the maple wings will help confirm or change the ID.

I read that the Full Moon Maple has 7 to 11 lobes on its leaves. This leaf seems to show an entry-level 7 lobes.

The damage to the stem looks terrific in the photo, yet is subtle to the eye in real life. It looks like a bad scrape. The two stem-damage photos are in reverse sequence, but the main scrape is below the leafless twig. It is the only damage I photographed, but there is some more. Should I just leave the bare stems as they are? Is there a possibility of new growth on the presently bare stems showing up sooner or later?

Thanks again.

 

The bare stems look green and alive , so should put out some growth. Any dead bark should be removed.

 

@chimera, that's good news. I'll eagerly watch and hope for some new growth on those stems.
Thanks for that.

 

A little less than three weeks later, I'm so glad to report you were right! The little maple, left alone with TLC but no tampering or twig-cutting, has leafed-out generally, very thick and green and robust. Especially good news is the recent proliferation of many brand new leaves on the previously bare stems. I think ALL the bare stems will acquire new foliage within a few weeks more. I'm including a photo to show an example.

Thanks for your insights last month. I'm very happy, and I'm sure the maple tree is, too.