Japanese Maple

Japanese Maples, Latin name acer palmatum, is a deciduous shrub or small tree that typically grows to 10-25' tall. It is native to Japan, Korea and China. This plant is generally rounded to broad-rounded in form, often with low branching. Each palmate green leaf has 5 or 7 but less frequently 9 pointed, toothed lobes. Fall colors include shades of yellow, red-violet, and bronze. Cultivars (often grafted) are quite variable.

Upright Japanese Maples

Atropurpureum Acer palmatum 'Bloodleaf'

Autumn Moon Acer shirasawanum 'Jordan'

Yellow to burnt orange, with underlying tones ranging from orange, salmon and chartreuse. Fall foliage is varying shades of gold to red.

Bloodgood Acer palmatum

deep reddish-purple summer foliage, good crimson-red fall color

Butterfly Acer palmatum

Coral Bark Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku'

showy pink bark; yellow gold fall color

Crimson Queen Acer palmatum var. dissectum

Emperor I Acer palmatum 'Wolff'

purple red foliage in spring/summer turns scarlet red in fall

Fireglow Acer palmatum 'Effegi'

deep red foliage persisting through summer, purple-scarlet to crimson red fall colors

Lion's Head Acer palmatum 'Shishigashira' or 'Ribesifolium'

Purple Ghost Acer palmatum var. dissectum

Weeping Japanese Maple Acer palmatum var. dissectum

Var. dissectum is typically a much smaller, rounded, slow-growing shrubby form (often with cascading branching) that rarely matures to more than 12' tall with a larger spread. Palmate leaves, each having 7-11 deeply incised lobes, are deeply cut to the base of the leaf. These dissected-leaf shrubs are commonly called laceleaf Japanese maple, cutleaf Japanese maple or threadleaf Japanese maple. Dissectum means deeply cut in reference to the deeply cut, feathery nature of the leaves.

Crimson Queen Acer palmatum var. dissectum

crimson color throughout summer, can turn bright scarlet in autumn