Homeowners frequently need a small shade tree for their home grounds—a tree that is dense and bushy gives plenty of shade, yet requires little care.
The Amur maple (Acer ginnala) fills these requirements.
One of the hardiest of woody plants (hardy way up to the Hudson Bay country in Canada), it has an extremely wide range of usefulness in the colder areas of North America as well as the milder parts.
A native of northern China, Korea, and Japan, it was probably first introduced into America about 1860.
Matured Amur Maple
At maturity, it will be about 20’ feet high and will be dense and rounded. Unless pruned, it may grow more or less as a large shrub with several trunks.
In fact, it has been used in the shelter-belt plantings on the Great Plains of the midwestern United States because of its hardiness and its bushy, wind-resisting character.
The three-lobed leaves are about 3” inches long, the central lobe being twice as long as the side lobes.
These leaves are a lustrous dark green color and turn a vivid scarlet in the fall, one of the most valued ornamental characteristics of this small tree.
Maple Fruits
The fruits of many maples are not of much ornamental interest, merely being two-winged samaras which are often none too conspicuous.
The fruit of the Amur maple, however, turns a bright red in the early summer and remains colorful throughout the entire summer and early fall while the leaves of the tree are still green.
Sowing Maple Seeds From Fruits
The seed should be sown as soon as ripe for easy germination.
It may be of interest to note that this seed has been stored in airtight containers, placed at 32° to 40° degrees Fahrenheit temperature, and kept viable for 2 ½ years.
However, a much easier way to store the seed (if it cannot be sown as soon as it is ripe) is to mix it with a very little moist peat moss or sphagnum moss—just enough to keep the seed moist—place this mixture in a tightly closed polyethylene bag and put it in the home electric refrigerator until the following spring, when it may be sown.
Usually, if one looks around carefully under an old tree, one can find numerous seedlings that are suitable subjects for transplanting.
This fibrous-rooted maple is easy to transplant, and its roots are not notorious for robbing the soil of food as are those of the Norway maple.
44659 by Donald Wyman