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The Maple Society Newsletter● Autumn/Fall 2021 ● Vol. 31/3 3
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The Maple Society Newsletter● Autumn/Fall 2021 ● Vol. 31/3 3
Dates for the diary – 2021
1st October
9th–10th October
16th–17th October
30th
January
February 7th–8th
May
28th–30th October
UK - Seed Distribution
Last day for payment.
UK - Autumn meeting
Hillier's and Wynkcoombe Arboretum Visit.
Belgium
Garden with a large maple collection and Benoî t Choteau's maple nursery. To receive more
information and to sign up for the visits please contact luch. maplesociety@gmail. com
UK - 2022 Annual General Meeting via Zoom
NAB - Booth at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival in Seattle UK - Cornwall weekend
Visiting three of the best maple collections in Cornwall.
NAB - Symposium Raleigh, NC
with post-tour events on 10/31 and 11/1.
Please check our web site https: //www. maplesociety. org for the latest details, of all events, or email hugh. angus@gmail. com
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4 The Maple Society Newsletter ● Autumn/Fall 2021 ● Vol. 31/3
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Site of the famous Aceretum with well over 1000 different maples brought together to see and enjoy. Many also for sale. You can also visit the nursery.
Open Monday – Saturday from 9-5, free admittance.
PlantenTuin Esveld, Rijneveld 72, 2771 XS Boskoop, Netherlands,
Tel. 0031 172-213289
info@esveld. nl, www. esveld. nl
The Maple Society Newsletter● Autumn/Fall 2021 ● Vol. 31/3 5
SPECIES PROFILE
Acer velutinum
Boisser (1846)
Velvet or Persian Maple
by the late Peter Gregory
T
he Persian maple, one of the largest and to many writers, one of the most handsome maples, grows to 30m (98ft) tall. Few maples grow faster or taller. In 1877, Dr Masters, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew at the time, described a variety vanvolxemii of the velvet maple as the “fastest growing and noblest of all the maples. ” The late Alan Mitchell mischieviously suggested if anyone came across a specimen of this tree which was not one of the best, they should cut it out
before anyone else saw it!
It is remarkable for its large 5-lobed bright green leaves, resembling those of its close relative, Acer pseudoplatanus, the European sycamore, but the leaves are usually slightly larger. The upper leaf surface is bright green, with a grey-green undersurface covered in short soft erect light velvety hairs, hence the specifi c and common names - though the degree of greyness and hairiness can vary from almost absent to dense. It is also noted for its very late fl ushing, one of the last of all tree species to begin the season's growth.
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Although the leaves are very similar to and are often mistaken for those of the European sycamore, the velvet maple is very easily distinguished from it by its attractive, smoothish almost velvety grey to grey-green beech-like bark - almost like patterned leather. In contrast, the bark of older sycamore trees is rough scaly brown-to-russet or fi ssured rusty brown. The velvet maple diff ers also in the slender brown winter buds, with tufts of grey hairs at the sharp-pointed tips and, most conspicuously of all, the outward-pointing to upright spike-like or umbelliferous-looking fl ower and fruit clusters. The European sycamore has glabrous, stout, bluntly-tipped greenish winter buds, and conspicuous pendulous chains of fl owers and fruits.
Although the Persian maple can be propagated easily from seed or grafted onto readily-available sycamore root-stock, it is rare in cultivation. It is too large to be grown in any but the largest gardens,
Flowering branches of Acer velutinum (photo: Hugh Angus)
tree collections and botanic gardens. It occasionally occurs in parks and is a common street tree in northern Iran and some Russian towns and cities. The tallest specimen in Britain is growing at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, Gloucestershire, and was over 29m (100ft) tall in 1993. This is the variety vanvolxemii, and is one of several large velvet maples growing there.
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