Japanese maple
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Japanese maple ( Acer japonicum ) |
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The Japanese maple ( Acer japonicum ) or Thunberg's Japanese maple is a small tree or shrub belonging to the maple genus in the soap tree family (Sapindaceae). The natural range is in Japan.
description
The Japanese maple is an 8 to 10 meter high tree or broad-crowned shrub with whitish-gray to gray-brown bark and reddish to gray, hairless shoots. The 8 to 14 centimeters wide leaves are seven to nine-lobed, rarely el-lobed with a more or less round outline and heart-shaped base. The lobes are egg-shaped, pointed, cut approximately to the middle of the blade and sawed twice. The leaves are bright green, initially silky hairy, later balding. The underside is hairless except for the nerves. The petiole is 2 to 4 centimeters long, with thick white tomentose hairs until the time of flowering, later balding. In autumn the leaves turn deep red. The flowers are 10 to 15 in long-stalked, slightly silky-haired umbels . The single flowers are 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide and have five purple sepals and five slightly smaller, more or less pink petals . The flowers appear from April to May. The fruits are 2 to 2.5 centimeters long, initially hairy, later glabrous with wings spread at right angles to horizontally. The fruits ripen in September.
The number of chromosomes is .
Distribution and ecology
The distribution area is in Japan on the islands of Hokkaidō and Honshū . In China, it is cultivated in Jiangsu and Liaoning provinces . The Japanese maple grows in shrub areas and hedges, on fresh to moist, acidic to neutral, nutrient-rich, sandy to loamy-humus-rich soils in sunny to light-shady, summer-cool locations. It is usually frost hardy.
Systematics and research history
The Japanese maple ( Acer japonicum ) is a kind of the genus of maple ( Acer ) in the family of soap tree plants (Sapindaceae). There it is assigned to the Palmata series Palmata section . It was first described in 1784 by Carl Peter Thunberg in the Systema Vegetabilium: secundum classes ordines genera species cum characteribus et differentiis. Editio decima quarta .
use
The species is very often used as an ornamental wood because of its impressive autumn colors . A distinction is made between several cultivars :
- 'Aconitifolium': with 15 to 20 centimeters wide and deeply incised leaves and pinnate lobes. The leaves are light green and turn conspicuously brown-red to carmine-red in autumn.
- 'Vitifolium': A tree-like shrub up to 15 meters high with deeply lobed leaves. The leaves turn scarlet, orange, carmine and yellow in autumn.
proof
literature
- Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , p. 71.
- Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 11: Oxalidaceae through Aceraceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2008, ISBN 978-1-930723-73-3 , pp. 524 (English).
- Steve Cafferty: Cosmos Atlas Trees of the World . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-10983-0 , p. 231 .
Individual evidence
- ^ German name after Cafferty: Kosmos-Atlas Trees of the World , p. 231.
- ↑ German name after Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 71.
- ↑ a b c Roloff et al .: Flora of the Woods , p. 71.
- ↑ a b Acer japonicum . In: Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 11: Oxalidaceae through Aceraceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2008, ISBN 978-1-930723-73-3 , pp. 524 (English).
- ↑ a b Acer japonicum. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed December 29, 2011 .
