Acer palmatum

Acer palmatum, commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Korean: danpungnamu [단풍나무]; Japanese: irohamomiji [イロハモミジ] or momiji [紅葉]), is a species of woody plant native to Korea, Japan, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia. Many different cultivars of this maple have been selected and they are grown worldwide for their large variety of attractive forms, leaf shapes, and spectacular colors.

Description

A shrub or small tree. It grows 5 m tall. There are prickles along the stem. The leaves are twice divided and there are 8-18 pairs of pinnae. There are up to 50 pairs of pinnules on each pinnae. The flowers are yellow. They are in large clusters at the ends of branches. The pods are flattened.

Edible Uses

The sap contains some sugar and can be drunk fresh or boiled down into a syrup used as a sweetener, though its sugar concentration is considerably lower than in sugar maples (A. saccharum). Tap the trunk in early spring — sap runs best on warm, sunny days following a frost, and trees grown in cold-winter continental climates yield the most. Leaves are edible when cooked, though they are not particularly palatable.

Traditional Uses

The sugary sap can be eaten. It is normally collected on a sunny day following a freezing night. The leaves are eaten with oil and salt.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Medicinal Uses

None known

Distribution

It is a temperate plant. A plant native to China, Japan, and Korea. It requires a well drained soil. It needs fertile soil and an open sunny position. It is drought and frost resistant. It can stand frosts to about -25°C when young shoots are not present. It grows in forests between 200-1200 m altitude in China. Temperate. It suits hardiness zones 6-9. Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens. Burnie Rhodo gardens. Arboretum Tasmania.

Where It Grows

Asia, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, North America, Sikkim, Slovenia, Tasmania,

Cultivation

It can be grown from seed or cuttings. Seed should be pre-soaked for 24 hours then kept cold at 0-8°C for 2-4 months to assist them to grow. Seed can be sown fresh if green seeds are used.

Propagation

Seed is best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame, where it usually germinates the following spring. Stored seed should be pre-soaked for 24 hours and then stratified for 2–4 months at 1–8°C, though germination can be slow. Seed can be harvested green — fully developed but before it has dried and produced germination inhibitors — and sown immediately for late-winter germination. Seed harvested too early produces very weak plants or none at all. Prick seedlings into individual pots once large enough to handle and grow on until 20cm or more tall before planting out permanently. Layering is successful with most species in this genus and takes about 12 months. Cuttings of young shoots taken in June or July should carry 2–3 pairs of leaves plus one pair of buds at the base; remove a thin slice of bark at the base and use a rooting hormone. Rooted cuttings must show new growth during the summer before being potted up, or they are unlikely to survive the winter. Only strong-growing cultivars succeed from cuttings — dissected or variegated cultivars will rarely develop into good plants by this method.

Other Uses

Leaves packed around apples, root crops, and similar produce help preserve them.

Production

They are slow growing.

Notes

There are about 120-150 Acer species.

Synonyms

Also Known As

Fowl's claw maple, Greenleaf Japanese maple, Jizhua Qi, Kapasay, Pahljačasti javor

References (15)

• Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 42
• Brickell, C. (Ed.), 1999, The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. Convent Garden Books. p 66
• Coombes, A.J., 2000, Trees. Dorling Kindersley Handbooks. p 94
• Cundall, P., (ed.), 2004, Gardening Australia: flora: the gardener's bible. ABC Books. p 87
• Etherington, K., & Imwold, D., (Eds), 2001, Botanica's Trees & Shrubs. The illustrated A-Z of over 8500 trees and shrubs. Random House, Australia. p 64

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