#326 (A26) RED SNAKEBARK MAPLE
Acer capillipes
Planted: 1995
This tree is near the moat steps.
| Other Common Name: | Kyushu Maple |
| Distribution: | Native to mountainous regions of Japan usually growing alongside mountain streams. |
| Planting Date: | Dec 1995 |
| Bought from: | Hillier Nurseries, Romsey |
| Appearance: | A small deciduous tree. |
| Growth Habit: | It is a small deciduous tree growing to 10 to 15 m (rarely to 20 m) tall with a trunk up to 70 cm diameter, though usually smaller and often with multiple trunks, and a spreading crown of long, slender branches. |
| Bark: | The bark is smooth, olive-green with regular narrow vertical white stripes and small horizontal brownish lenticels; it retains its pattern to the base even on old trees. |
| Leaf: | The leaves are 10 to 15 cm long and 6 to 12 cm broad, with three or five lobes, the basal lobes of five-lobed leaves being small; they have a serrated margin, conspicuous veining, and a reddish 4 to 8 cm petiole. They are matt to sub-shiny green in summer, turning to bright yellow, orange or red in the autumn. |
| Flowers: | The flowers are small, greenish-yellow, produced on 8 to10 cm racemes in late spring, erect at first but becoming pendulous, with male and female flowers on different racemes. |
| Fruit: | The nutlets are 5 mm long, with a 2 cm long wing. |
| Uses: | Grown as an ornamental tree for its striped bark and good autumn foliage. |
| Plant Hunter: | Introduced to Western collections from seed collected in 1892 by Charles Sargent for the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard, Boston. Plants sent to Kew by 1894. |
| Anecdotes and Comments: | This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1975. |