Acer ginnala

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acer ginnala
Amur Maple foliage
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Sapindales Family: Sapindaceae Genus: Acer Species: A. ginnala
Binomial name
Acer ginnala Maxim.

Acer ginnala (Amur Maple) is a species of maple native to northeastern Asia from easternmost Mongolia east to Korea and Japan, and north to southeastern Siberia in the Amur River valley.^[1]

It is a deciduous spreading shrub or small tree growing to 3-10 m tall, with a short trunk up to 20-40 cm diameter and slender branches. The bark is thin, dull gray-brown, and smooth at first but becoming shallowly fissured on old plants. The leaves are opposite and simple, 4-10 cm long and 3-6 wide, deeply palmately lobed with three or five lobes, of which two small basal lobes (sometimes absent) and three larger apical lobes; the lobes are coarsely and irregularly toothed, and the upper leaf surface glossy. The leaves turn brilliant orange to red in autumn, and are on slender, often pink-tinged, petioles 3-5 cm long. The flowers are yellow-green, 5-8 mm diameter, produced in spreading panicles in spring as the leaves open. The fruit is a paired reddish samara, 8-10 mm long with a 1.5-2 cm wing, maturing in late summer to early autumn.^[1][2]

It is closely related to Acer tataricum (Tatar Maple), and is treated as a subspecies of it (as A. tataricum subsp. ginnala (Maxim.) Wesm.) by some botanists.^[3] They differ conspicuously in the glossy, deeply lobed leaves of A. ginnala, compared to the matt, unlobed or only shallowly lobed leaves of A. tataricum.^[2]

[edit] Cultivation and uses

Acer ginnala is grown as an ornamental plant in northern regions of Europe and North America, where it is the most cold-tolerant maple, hardy to zone 2. It is naturalised in parts of North America.^[4]

It is also valued in Japan and elsewhere as a species suitable for bonsai.

[edit] References