Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum · Trees - Deciduous
Japanese Maple
New York Botanical Garden, 24 April 2022
A cut-leaf maple in new leaf, with a cherry going over behind it.
The trunk is the interesting part. Japanese maples grow slowly and lean as they go, and an old one develops this writhing, low-branched habit that no amount of pruning produces on its own. A tree this shape is likely to be pushing a century.
Japanese maple, Portland
Portland, 15 November 2020
A full-grown Japanese maple in mid-November colour, the lichen on its bark visible once the leaves have thinned enough to let light in from behind.
Portland's Japanese Garden is often called one of the most authentic outside Japan, and mature trees like this one - almost certainly decades old, given the size and spread - are a large part of why. Acer palmatum was one of the first Japanese plants brought to Western gardens, in the nineteenth century, specifically for this autumn show.
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