''Acer sieboldianum'' (Siebold's maple; ja, コハウチワカエデ, translit=kohauchiwakaede) is a species of

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

native to

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 common in the forests of

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

and

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

Islands; in the south of the range it is restricted to mountain forests.Kobe city
''Acer sieboldianum''
(in Japanese

It is named after

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora (plants), flora and fauna (animals), fauna and the introduction of ...

Description

It is a slow-growing, small to medium-sized

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing to tall, with smooth grey-brown bark. The young shoots are green to red, thinly covered with white hairs in their first year. 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 mid to dark green, long and broad with a petiole, and palmately lobed with nine to eleven (occasionally just seven) lobes. The young leaves in spring are downy with white hairs, with the petiole and veins on the underside of the leaf remaining hairy all summer, a feature useful in distinguishing it from the related ''

Acer palmatum ''Acer palmatum'', commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Japanese: ''irohamomiji'', , or ''momiji'', (栴), is a species of woody plant native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russi ...

''. In autumn, the leaves turn bright orange to red. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are pale yellow, produced in

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

s of 10–15 together; it is

andromonoecious Andromonoecy is a breeding system of plant species in which male and hermaphrodite flowers are on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside monoecy, gynomonoecy and trimonoecy. Andromonoecy is frequent among genera with zygomorphi ...

, with inflorescences containing flowers with either both sexes, or just male. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a paired

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 ...

, the pair spreading horizontally, each seed with a wing. Flowering is in late spring, with fruit maturation in early autumn.Okayama science university
''Acer sieboldianum''
(in Japanese

Kanagawa Prefecture trees and shrubs

(in Japanese

2009-10-24.van Gelderen, C.J. & van Gelderen, D.M. (1999). ''Maples for Gardens: A Color Encyclopedia''. The smooth bark and yellow flowers help distinguish it from the closely related ''

Acer japonicum ''Acer japonicum'', Fullmoon Maple, Downy Japanese-Maple ( ja, はうちは楓, translit=hauchiwakaede), is a species of maple native to Japan, on Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū (Nagasaki Prefecture), and also southern Korea.Kanagawa Prefecture tre ...

'' (Japanese, ''hauchiwakaede''), which has rough, scaly bark, and red flowers, while the hairy stems and yellow flowers distinguish it from '' Acer shirasawanum'' (Japanese, ''ooitayameigetsu''; with hairless stems and red flowers).Japanese mountain plants
kohauchiwakaede
(in Japanese

Cultivation

Siebold's maple is not as rare in cultivation as it seems. Specimens are often mistaken for and mislabeled as similar species in the

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

''Palmata'', such as ''Acer japonicum'', ''Acer shirasawanum'' and ''Acer palmatum''; it is also sometimes confused with ''

Acer pseudosieboldianum ''Acer pseudosieboldianum'', the Chinese maple or purplebloom maple, is a species of maple. It is native to northeastern China, Korea, and the Russian Far East.Hokanson, S''Acer pseudosieboldianum'' - A Japanese-like maple for the North? ''Yard ...

'' (Korean Maple or Keijo Maple), a closely related species from the adjacent mainland of northeastern Asia. Several

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s have been selected, most only rarely seen outside Japan. Cultivars include 'Kinugasa yama', 'Mi yama nishiki', 'Ogura yama', 'Sode no uchi' and 'Osiris'.de Jong, P. (2007). Parels uit het Von Gimborn Arboretum (23) - Acer sieboldianum 'Osiris'. ''Hortus'' (Utrecht) 26 (2).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q481769 sieboldianum Trees of Japan Endemic flora of Japan Taxa named by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel Plants described in 1865