Korean maple
Acer pseudosieboldianum · Sapindaceae · 당단풍나무
How to spot it
Palmate leaves usually with 9 to 11 lobes and flower-like red fall color; described as the tree behind most of the fall color on Korean hills and fields.
Look
- Leaves
- Leaves are opposite, round with a heart-shaped base, 7 to 10 cm long, usually with 9 to 11 lobes, with soft hairs along the veins beneath.
- Flowers
- From late April to late May, 10 to 20 white or yellowish-white flowers bloom in flat-topped clusters at the twig tips.
- Fruit
- Samaras are purplish brown, 2 cm long, with rounded, spreading wings; they ripen from mid-September to mid-October.
- Bark
- Bark is gray; one-year-old twigs are green or purplish green, and older twigs are covered with a white bloom.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Northeastern China and the Russian Far East; found throughout Korea.
- Ecology
- Very shade- and cold-tolerant; grows in groups in the middle layer of tree forests with dogwood and Mongolian oak on fertile, moist north-facing slopes and in valleys.