Acer truncatum

I was wondering what experience anyone has had with A. truncatum, especially on fall color. I bought a small plant some years ago from Ridge Road Nursery. I chose it from the other because of a great mix of red/purple and yellow fall color. Gene was a bit reluctant to part with it but decided to let me buy it. After that first year, it refused to make much color, usually a dirty yellow with a bit of dirty red. I began to think that it was in need of a bit of shade (I bought it from a shady area of the Nursery) to make fall color. Finally, this year, it decided to put on a show. Interior leaves golden yellow, outer leaves, reddish purple. One reason that I'm more interested than I should be is that the tree seems very tough. Last year in our really bad drought, my A. truncatum had it's best year of growth ever. It grew about 2.5', not slowing down a bit for the long, hot, dry period. Foliage stayed a nice shiny green showing no stress. It seems that this kind of a plant would be very welcome in the semi-arid west. They are woefully short on different kinds of trees that will survive for any extended period of time. Perhaps our Colorado members can confirm that for sure. Of course, everyone is invited to weigh in on any aspect of the plant.

Regards,

Ernie

Close up of foliage.

The U of IL has a test plot of A. truncatum that I like to go down to and snoop around and fall color is variable. I'm not sure what they are testing but the trees are getting all grown together and crowded. I suppose one day I'll show up and they'll all be gone. One tree there in particular has a nice bright yellow fall color that is about a week earlier to hit peak color than the others. Early dormancy is a good thing out West from what I understand. Less snowload or something.

Don't you love going to Ridge Road to visit with Gene?

Kevin,

Gene is a wonderful guy and loves plants. The first time I was there I was still in school so he quizzed me. I did pretty well until we got to Securinega (Flueggea) suffruticosa. What a wallflower stumper! Back to A. truncatum. I was getting sleepy last night and forgot what I really wanted to ask. Does anyone know if the species needs really "ideal" weather for producing fall color? Hybrids of it: 'Pacific Sunset' and 'Norwegian Sunset' have never really colored up in Central IL. Last year after the drought, then a generally long, warm fall; they produced fine fall color. This year they seem to be doing it again. ????

Regards,
Ernie

LHDP:

Have you touched base with Harold Pellet about his evaluations of Acer truncatum? Some time ago, when Mike Hayman was making regular trips up that way, he brought back multiples of individuals that Dr. Pellet was trialing. I planted five different ones out here at the Valley.

This of course preceded my connection to city water, and a couple of good droughts. The young bare root plants took it on the chin.

There are still two individuals left, however, and one has rather spectacular fall color. As the sun is just coming up this morning, you may have inspired me to go take a peep instead of pounding keys here. I'll report back.

As a tip of the hat to toughness, Don Shadow has been growing it for years in Winchester TN. I remember him touting this species to me when I still worked for the farms (probably around 1991), and he had 4" specimens available then. These are either firewood now or he's moved on. I can't recall him mentioning the species since way back then.

A quick glance at his catalog reveals 3" pots of Acer truncatum, but nothing larger listed. It still lurks...

I don't know how to post links but if you search UAH Grounds Management there's a site that evaluates trees on campus. Much praise for this maple on there. It's definitely on my wish list.

After falling twice while trying to perch higher for this picture (going for ibuprofen next), I got this picture with some morning sun. I'll have to get more "whole tree" shots of this 20' individual when the sun is up higher.

My experience with maples and fall color is that very often it will take them years to establish in a site well, with color improving slightly all along the way.

Supposedly Acer truncatum is used as a street tree in many Chinese cities. This would attest to its toughness.

One nice attribut to this tree which is seldom mentioned is its nice, ridged bark. Adds a lot of interest.

Acer truncatum mono, or sometimes Acer mono, was planted by a friend of mine. He reports that it grew like a weed and made a nice-sized tree in just a few years. I'll ask him about the fall color today when I see him.

Both species are easy to grow from seed, and seed is available from Schumacher's.

Scott

Nice pics, everyone.

I agree with Scott regarding maples taking a while after planting to produce good fall color. My Acer pseudosieboldianum had terrible/non existent fall color for the first 5 years the plant was in the ground. The last two years the tree has produced unbelievable fall color. (I also threatened the tree with removal if the tree didn't produce some fall color and that threat of removal may have influenced the tree to produce some fall color (:o).
Mike

My Acer pseudosieboldianum looks like crap. No form and no color. I'm about to give it that threat myself, but it's only been in the ground for 1 1/2 years, so I'm trying to be patient before I crack down.

Scott

Scott,
Here is a link to a pic of my tree that I had loaded into the PlantFiles. This was the first year the tree showed good fall color.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/59039/

I just took a few pictures of the tree a couple of days ago, but I have not loaded them onto my computer yet. If any turned out decent, I'll add one or two to this thread.
Mike

OK, Mike, so you're saving the really good pics of your maples for later?

Thanks to everyone for the info!

I was doing a bit of research myself about the tree and learned some neat things. You can successfully extract quercetin-3-O-L-rhamnoside from the foliage; most drought stress comes from cavitation and embolisms of the xylem! Name in Spanish is Arce chino. I learn something every day, not in the least from this site, too.

Chamthy- read the write up at UAH and they really do like it!

VV- thanks for your efforts and info. Harold didn't even mention A. truncatum at the NPC so perhaps it's either top secret or gone by the wayside. Or perhaps he just didn't have time to talk about all of what he's got cooking. I may very well be going up north this winter and will hit him up for a tour. I've been thinking donating a bit to the PDC anyway. If only we could have gotten pictures of you trying to get a picture! I suspect that there are just too many other nice trees for the South and that A. truncatum just lost out by not having a really unique, saleable asset. Your plant has the shallower lobed/truncate base, A. t. mono end of the spectrum look to them. My plant has a hastate/saggitate base to the foliage that is beyond most truncatum shapes. I thought perhaps it was a subspecies. So, I was trying to find out how many subspecies there are but this sort of info is hard to come by on the net. 'Maples for Gardens' (van Gelderen) doesn't list any subspecies and list A. mono as A. pictum and has a neat looking cultivar called 'Usugumo.' Starting to ramble here, must focus, focus....

Scott- I'm thinking that you maybe correct with your color improvement theory. Green Mountain is one that has colored up poorly until in the ground (field) for a number of years. The bark is nice on A. truncatum but most older plants that I've seen seem to be mushroom shaped. Perhaps a more upright form would be more useful. We planted an A. pseudoseiboldianum on grounds at work and it died some, didn't color for a couple of years and finally changed to a nice yellow with red highlights.

Treelover- A. pseudoseiboldianum is a great tree for you and perhaps soon there will be purple leafed types available due to some hybridization with A. palmatum 'Bloodgood.'


Regards,
Ernie

VV,
Yes, of course! (:o)

Ernie,
I've seen some of the work that Dr. Pellett has done with A. pseudosieboldianum. There was a fall picture of a very red-leaved (almost bronze-red) Acer pseudosieboldianum on the Landscape Plant Development Center's web site. I just checked and I don't see the pic there any longer. It would be nice to have an A. pseudosieboldianum with red leaves during the summer, since there are no hardiness issues with this tree in zone 4a.

I've had A. palmatum Robinson's Red in my garden since 2003 with no damage. I normally put a chicken wire cylinder that is covered with burlap around the tree for the winter. I am not going to do that this year. The tree is outgrowing its allotted space and I never in a million years ever thought that would happen. I have my fingers crossed.
Mike


This message was edited Nov 3, 2006 10:49 AM