Snowball maple
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Snowball maple ( Acer opalus ) in Abruzzo (Italy) |
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The snowball maple ( Acer opalus ), usually Schneeballblättriger maple , also Spring maple or Italian maple called, is a plant type from the genus of maple ( Acer ). It is rarely used as an ornamental wood in the temperate latitudes .
description
Appearance, bark and bud
The snowball maple grows as a deciduous, large shrub or as a tree that can reach heights of up to 20 meters. It has an open, wide, spherical to dome-shaped treetop on a short, short trunk . The bark of young branches is bare, later olive-brown and longitudinally fissured and is covered with numerous elongated-oval lenticels . The bark is initially reddish-gray, later it gets increasingly coarse, upturned scales, which leave orange-brown spots after falling off, or is fissured or furrowed.
The cross-opposite and slightly protruding from the branch arranged side buds are narrowly pointed-egg-shaped with a length of about 8 millimeters. They have light brown, grayish-whitish hairy, pointed bud scales. The dark brown edge of the bud scales has whitish eyelashes. The terminal bud, which is 12 millimeters long, is somewhat larger and resembles the side buds.
leaf
The opposite arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. They do not carry milky juice . The petiole is 10 to 15 inches long and reddish on top. The 12 to 14 centimeters wide leaf blade is usually bluntly three-lobed or, rarely clearly, five-lobed, with the foremost three lobes being particularly wide, coarse and serrated irregularly. The upper side of the leaf is dark green and the blue-gray-green underside of the leaf is softly hairy at least along the main veins . The autumn color is yellow to orange.
Inflorescence and flower
The flowers appear at the same time as or just before the foliage leaves in April. 10 to 50 long-stalked flowers stand together in nodding umbellate inflorescences . The hermaphroditic or unisexual flowers are light yellow to yellow-green.
fruit
The nuts, which are often hanging on a thick, curved stem, have a diameter of about 1 centimeter. The fruits have pink-greenish to reddish brown, 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long wings that close at an acute angle to approximately at a right angle.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 26.
ecology
The snowball maple specializes in insect pollination . The flowers produce plenty of sweet nectar and are therefore sufficiently flown to by bees despite their inconspicuous color .
Occurrence
The snowball maple is widespread in the mountains of the western Mediterranean region and occurs there in mountain forests. It is also common in North Africa. In Central Europe it grows as a wild form only in the mildest locations, north of the Alps only in the Swiss Jura and near Grenzach (D). Since the tree blooms in bright yellow-green before the leaves and flowers of most other forest trees, it can be easily recognized in the stand during this time. The middle name is derived from this property: spring maple.
The snowball maple is a semi-shade tree species and inhabits the colline, less often the montane altitude . It needs a sunny location on medium to shallow, moderately fresh, nutrient-rich, alkaline and calcareous loamy soil . It is found particularly in beech and oak forests, sedge-beech forests, oak and beech forests on slopes. Deciduous forests with boxwood, downy oaks and linden-maple forests as well as hornbeam forests are among its regular growth habitats.
The snowball maple is rarely used as an ornamental plant in parks.
Systematics
The first publication of Acer opalus was made in 1768 by Philip Miller in Gardeners Dictionary , 8th Edition, Acer point 8 below.
Acer opalus belongs to the Monspessulana series from the Acer section in the Acer genus .
There are at least two subspecies of Acer opalus :
- Acer opalus subsp. obtusatum (Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.) Gams (Syn .: Acer obtusatum Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd. , Acer opalus var. obtusatum (Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.) Rchb. ): It comes in the northern Algeria , Albania , former Yugoslavia , Greece , Italy (including Sicily ) and Corsica .
- Acer opalus Mill. Subsp. opalus : It occurs in Germany (only small area), Switzerland (only small area), Italy, France (including Corsica) and Spain .
swell
- Snowball leaved maple. In: FloraWeb.de. (Section description)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Acer opalus at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ a b c Acer opalus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
literature
- Bruno P. Kremer: Steinbach's great plant guide . Ulmer (Eugen), Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4903-6
- Erwin Litzelmann, Maria Litzelmann: The vegetation picture of the Dinkelbergplateau , In: Bauhinia , Volume 1, Issue 3, 1960, pp. 222-250.
Web links
- Snowball maple. In: FloraWeb.de.
- Distribution map for Germany. In: Floraweb .
- Acer opalus Mill. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )
- Snowball-leaved maple - data sheet at baumkunde.de .
- Data sheet of Acer opalus subsp. obtusatum at Kew .