I've been wondering for five years what kind of snakebarks these street trees are outside my building. They've appeared previously in a thread on bark, but I didn't try hard enough for an ID then. The city's tree list shows two A. pensylvaticum here, but we just saw several of those at UBC BG, and these do not look like those. A neighbour was kind enough to pull and cut a branch from each so I could get better photos than what I had five years ago. The tree photos are from back then; the cut branches from yesterday. Tree 1, east of my entrance The leaves on this are generally longer than they are wide - around 11cm long, 8cm tip to tip across. I thought the brown hairs would indicate A. rufinerve. Tree 2, west of my entrance This tree has a broader shape than the other. The leaves are more round, about 10cm long and tip to tip across, and the side lobes are more pronouned. This also has brown hairs that I thought would indicate A. rufinerve. So are the differences what you can expect within a species, or are they different species?
I found my attempt at flower photos, from April 16, 2012. Tree 1, east I missed the flowers on this. Tree 2, west This one did still have flowers
Tree 2 looks good for Acer rufinerve. Tree 1 is trickier; the leaf shape is closer to Acer davidii, but given the red hairs, and Ron's point, perhaps more likely a hybrid.
I'm happy - one A. rufinerve and one rufinerve (or rufinerve/davidii) hybrid will do for talking about them. Thanks, Ron, Michael and Gomero.
Of course; I'm sure that's why they look so good. I see them every day, and they seem to do a little dance whenever I appear, particularly if I have a camera in my hand and am trying to get a photo.
