''Acer tataricum'', the Tatar maple or Tatarian maple, is a species of maple widespread across central and southeastern Europe and temperate Asia, from Austria and Turkey east as far as

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the Russian Far East. The species is named after the

Tatar peoples The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

of southern Russia; the tree's name is similarly commonly also misspelled "Tartar" or "Tartarian" in English.Ecosystema
''Acer tataricum''
(in Russian

Description

''Acer tataricum'' is a deciduous spreading

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

or small tree growing to tall, with a short trunk up to diameter and slender branches. The

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

is thin, pale brown, and smooth at first but becoming shallowly fissured on old plants. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are opposite and simple, broadly ovate, long and broad, unlobed or with three or five shallow lobes, and matte green above; the leaf margin is coarsely and irregularly toothed; the leaf petiole is slender, often pink-tinged, long. The flowers are whitish-green, diameter, produced in spreading panicles in spring as the leaves open. The fruit is a paired reddish

samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...

, long with a wing, maturing in late summer to early autumn.Flora of China, ''Acer tataricum'' Linnaeus, 1753. 鞑靼槭 da da qi
/ref>

Taxonomy

;Subspecies subspecies accepted by

the Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant species ...

maintained by Kew Gardens in London. *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''aidzuense'' (Franch.) P.C.DeJong *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''ginnala'' (Maxim.) Wesm. Japan, Korea, Mongolia, eastern Russia, northeastern and central China *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''semenovii'' (Regel & Herder) A.E.Murray - Tibet, Afghanistan, southern Russia, Iran *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''tataricum'' - Caucasus, Turkey, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''theiferum'' (W.P.Fang) Y.S.Chen & P.C.de Jong - China ''Acer tataricum'' is related to ''

Acer ginnala ''Acer ginnala'', the Amur maple, is a plant species with woody stems native to northeastern Asia from easternmost Mongolia east to Korea and Japan, and north to the Russian Far East in the Amur River valley. It is a small maple with deciduous ...

'' (Amur maple) from northeastern Asia; this is treated as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of Tatar maple (''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''ginnala'') by some botanists but not by others. They differ conspicuously in the glossy, deeply lobed leaves of ''A. ginnala'', compared to the matte, unlobed or only shallowly lobed leaves of ''A. tataricum''.

Gallery

Cultivation and uses

Tatar maple is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant in gardens throughout Europe and also in North America. In Russia, it is valued in farmland

shelterbelt A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edges ...

s. It is locally

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

in eastern North America.

References

External links

*
photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden
{{Taxonbar, from=Q162728 tataricum Trees of Europe Trees of Asia Flora of Central Asia Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of Eastern Europe Flora of Western Asia Flora of temperate Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus