Acer ginnala
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 Amur Maple foliage
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| Acer ginnala Maxim. |
Acer ginnala, the 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.
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.
It is closely related to Tatar Maple Acer tataricum, and is treated as a subspecies of it (A. tataricum subsp. ginnala) by some botanists. 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.
[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.
It is also valued in Japan and elsewhere as a species suitable for bonsai.
[edit] References
- Flora of China: Acer (scroll down for A. ginnala).
- USDA Plant Profile
