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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
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'Acer negundo' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous tree 40 to 70 ft high, with a trunk 2 to 3 ft. in diameter, forming a wide-spreading head of branches; branchlets glabrous. Leaves long-stalked, pinnate, 6 to 10 in. long, consisting of three or five leaflets. Leaflets ovate, 2 to 4 in. long, pointed, coarsely toothed towards the end; upper side bright green, glabrous; lower one slightly downy or eventually glabrous; the terminal leaflet often three-lobed or even trifoliolate. Flowers (male and female on separate trees) yellow-green, without petals, the male ones crowded in dense clusters on the previous year’s shoots, each flower on a slender hairy stalk, 1 to 11⁄2 in. long; the females in slender, drooping racemes. Fruit in pendent racemes, 4 to 8 in. long; each key 1 to 11⁄2 in. long, with a wing 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 in. wide, the pair forming an angle of 60° or less.
Native of N. America, where it is widely spread. According to Sargent it is most common in the Mississippi Valley, but reaches as far north as New York State, and as far west as the inland slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was cultivated by Bishop Compton at Fulham in 1688. Although the typical form is by no means common, it is a handsome tree, especially when isolated on a lawn. It is one of the maples that yield sugar in America. There is a tree 45 × 81⁄4 ft at Kew but this is exceeded in height by one at Northerwood House, Hants, 52 × 3 ft (1963). In Späth’s nursery, near Berlin, there was once a specimen 60 ft high and 61⁄2 ft in girth of trunk.
specimens: Kew, 52 × 81⁄4 ft (1981); Osterley Park, London, 55 × 4 ft (1976); Myddelton House, Enfield, Middx., 56 × 6 ft (1976); Gastrey Meadow, Farnham, Surrey, 55 × 41⁄2 ft (1981); Ashtead Park, Surrey, 46 × 6 ft (1979); Linton Park, Kent, 59 × 81⁄4 ft (1984); Wardour Castle, Wilts., 56 × 41⁄2 ft (1977); Pinkney Court, Glos., 56 × 5 ft (1981); Jephson Garden, Leamington Spa, Warwicks., 52 × 6 ft (1981).
cv. ‘Variegatum’. – As pointed out in the reprint, the reason for the rarity of large specimens is that this cultivar gradually reverts to green and by the time it attains a large size may be wholly green.
† cv. ‘Flamingo ‘. – Mature leaves resembling those of ‘Variegatum’ but tinted with rose when young. This cultivar has not been fully tested. It is likely to be decorative only when young or if pruned. Raised in Holland.
var. violaceum – The most attractive feature of this maple is that the flowers too are purple or reddish. There is a fine specimen in the Hillier Arboretum, Ampfield, Hants, measuring 43 × 6 ft (1986).
It may seem very odd to include so familiar a species in a book on recent introductions, but the resolution of the taxonomy of Acer negundo has resulted in the description of several subspecific taxa whose names are appearing only now in catalogues and the literature, although the plants they cover may have been cultivated for some time. The great advantage of A. negundo is its adaptability, it being tolerant in one form or another of great heat and/or great cold, although it is often unattractively shaped and sometimes weedy. The abundant fruits it produces can be a pleasing feature in themselves, hanging on the tree long after the leaves have fallen.
A recent collection from Pico de Orizaba, Puebla, Mexico of subsp. mexicanum (F&M 48) may be the first introduction of this taxon to cultivation. It is too soon to make a judgement on its hardiness or garden-worthiness, but young plants have survived lengthy periods of being frozen solid in their pots. The stems are violet with a white bloom and produce red-flushed new leaves with red petiole and rachis (Pan Global Plants catalogue 2006). In the wild the trees were 7–9 m tall.
Acer negundo was described by Bean (B213, S48) and Krüssmann (K85). In this book, rather than giving separate descriptions for individual subspecific taxa of this distinctive species, we provide a key to the subspecies and varieties, below.
1a. | Branchlets glabrous or almost so | 2 |
1b. | Branchlets pubescent | 3 |
2a. | Leaflets three to seven (to nine), olive-green to fresh green, 5–10 × 3–5 cm, glabrous; Canada (Ontario), USA (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin) | subsp. negundo |
2b. | Leaflets three, dark green, but paler beneath, 6–8 × 2.5–3 cm, densely tomentose beneath; Guatemala, Mexico (Chiapas, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala, Veracruz) | subsp. mexicanum (DC.) Wesm. |
3a. | Leaflets glabrous beneath or slightly hairy on the midrib; Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan), USA (Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming) | subsp. interius (Britton) Á. Löve & D. Löve |
3b. | Leaflets thickly tomentose to puberulent | 4 |
4a. | Leaflets three to seven, ovate, tomentose when immature, covered in white hairs at maturity; USA (California) | subsp. californicum (Torr. & A. Gray) Wesm. |
4b. | Leaflets three, broadly elliptic, puberulent beneath; USA (Arizona, Missouri, Texas) | subsp. californicum var. texanum Pax |
Leaflets wholly yellow; this variety is one of the best of golden-coloured trees, and retains its colour until autumn. Branchlets green with a white bloom. Späth’s nurseries, 1891, where it arose as a sport from a variegated form known as ‘Aureo-limbatum’. G. Krüssmann, in Handbuch der Laubgehölze, points out that this clone is not the same as ‘Odessanum’, as has commonly been assumed.
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Young branchlets purplish, covered with a glaucous bloom. Such forms are common in the Middle West of the United States. As an ornamental tree its most valuable characteristic is that the filaments are pinkish-red, giving a striking effect when it is in flower in early spring.