Acer fargesii Rehd.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Acer fargesii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-fargesii/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Synonyms

  • A. laevigatum fargesii Hort. Veitch.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
nutlet
Small nut. Term may also be applied to an achene or part of a schizocarp.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Acer fargesii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-fargesii/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A deciduous or partially evergreen tree up to 30 ft high, usually smaller; young shoots glabrous, slender, pink at first, then yellowish-green. Leaves narrowly oblong to lanceolate, slender-pointed, tapered or rounded at the base, mostly entire on adult trees, often more or less toothed on young ones; 2 to 412 in. long, 12 to 114 in. wide; glabrous, pink when quite young, becoming light green on both surfaces; stalk 18 to 13 in. long. Flower-panicles red, 112 to 2 in. long, 1 to 114 in. wide, glabrous, produced on short leafy shoots. Wings of fruit red, 12 to 34 in. long, 14 to 38 in. wide, rounded at the end, spreading at right (or wider) angles; nutlet egg-shaped to spherical, 16 in. long.

Native of Hupeh and Szechwan, China; introduced to the Coombe Wood nursery by Wilson in 1902. It is worth growing for the charming red young twigs and leaves. It is related to A. oblongum, but that species is well distinguished by its downy flower-stalks and the leaves being glaucous beneath. A. fargesii is on the tender side and best suited in the milder counties. Lord Rosse, who grows it at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Eire, finds it is always cut by ten degrees of frost.

A. laevigatum, with which Farges’ maple has been associated as a variety, is a tender Himalayan as well as Chinese species. It belongs, like the others, to the group with narrow, mostly entire leaves that are red when young, but it differs from A. fargesii in its larger, distinctly net-veined leaves. A. oblongum is readily distinguished from both by the leaves being three-veined at the base. There is an example 28 × 134 ft at Mount Usher, Co. Wicklow, Eire (1966).