''Acer buergerianum'' (trident maple; ) 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 eastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(from

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

west to southeastern

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, south to

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, and southwest to

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and

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 ...

. The specific epithet is a

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

honoring Dutch plant hunter J. Buerger (1804-1858).

Description

It is a 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 ...

reaching a height of 5–20 m with a trunk up to 50 cm diameter. 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 in opposite pairs, 2.5–8 cm long (excluding the 2–5 cm petiole) and 3.5–6.5 cm broad, hard, glossy dark green above, paler below, usually with three lobes; on mature trees the lobes forward-pointing and with smooth margins, on young trees with more spreading lobes and serrated margins. 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 produced in spring, yellow-green, in pendulous

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; they are small, with five greenish sepals and five yellow-white petals about 2 mm long, and eight stamens. 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

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 ...

with two winged

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s, each seed 4–7 mm diameter, with a 15 mm wing; the wings are forward-pointing and often overlapping each other.. The species is variable, and a number of

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

have been described: *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''buergerianum''. Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Zhejiang. *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''jiujiangense'' Z.X.Yu. Jiangxi. *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''horizontale'' F.P.Metcalf. Southern Zhejiang. *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''formosanum'' (Hayata ex Koidzumi) Sasaki. Taiwan (endemic). *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''kaiscianense'' (Pampanini) W.P.Fang. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi. *''Acer buergerianum'' var. ''yentangense'' W.P.Fang & M.Y.Fang. Zhejiang. A few trees have consistently unlobed leaves; these were first described as a variety ''A. trifidum'' var. ''integrifolium'' Makino (''A. trifidum'' is an old synonym of ''A. buergerianum''), but are now not distinguished from the species.Makino Herbarium, Tokyo
''Acer trifidum''
/ref> Occasional unlobed leaves also occur on most trees with otherwise normal three-lobed leaves.Mitchell, A. F. (1974). ''A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe''. Collins

Cultivation

It is widely grown in temperate regions as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

. It was introduced very early to

, where its name translates as "China maple".Kanon tree book
''Acer buergerianum''
(in Japanese

More recently, it was introduced to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in 1896, and is now occasionally grown in parks and large gardens there. Mature examples may be seen at

Westonbirt Arboretum Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is an arboretum in Gloucestershire, England, about southwest of the town of Tetbury. Managed by Forestry England, it is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom. Planted ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the

Esveld Aceretum Esveld Aceretum is (in the number of species and cultivars under cultivation at the site) the largest collection of maples in the world.''Maples for Gardens: A Color Encyclopedia'' by C.J. van Gelderen & D.M. van Gelderen, 1999 The aceretum is par ...

in Boskoop, Netherlands,

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in N ...

in Boston, Massachusetts and many other locations.

Bonsai

Trident maple is a popular choice for the art of

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

and responds well to techniques that create leaf reduction and ramification. It is suitable for many style and sizes of bonsai.

Cultivars

Several interesting

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 developed, many of these bear Japanese names. Notable cultivars include 'Goshiki Kaede' (striking pink and green

variegation Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves and sometimes the stems and fruit of plants. Species with variegated individuals are sometimes found in the understory of tropical rainforests, and this habitat is the s ...

), 'Kifu Nishiki' (roundish, almost un-lobed leaves), 'Mino Yatsubusa' (dwarf with long, narrow leaves) 'Mitsubato Kaede' (distinctive

cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

-like trunk) and 'Naruto' (strongly incurved leaf surface).

References

External links

*
line drawing, Manual of Vascular Plants of the Lower Yangtze Valley China Illustration fig. 219
{{Taxonbar, from=Q941891 buergerianum Flora of Japan Flora of China Plants used in bonsai Plants described in 1865