Acer davidii
Common name: 
David Maple
Père David's Maple
Pronunciation: 
A-ser da-VID-e-i
Family: 
Sapindaceae, Aceraceae
Genus: 
Acer
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Broadleaf deciduous tree, 30-50 ft (9-15 m), upright, slightly spreading, variable.   Leaves opposite, simple, 7.5-18 cm long, 4-10 cm wide, unlobed on mature trees (almost all 3-lobed on young trees), slightly heart-shaped at base, unevenly toothed, glossy green; in the fall, golden with some red-orange.  Flowers small, yellowish, in slender, pendulous, 5-7.5 cm long, clusters (racemes); female clusters longer than male.  Fruits, glabrous, about 3 cm long, wings horizontally spread.
  • Sun or light shade.  Grows in clay, loam, or sand in normal pH range. Somewhat tolerant of wind, wet conditions, and drought.
  • The typical "species" form may not be in cultivation.  Several cultivars exist in commerce but often only sold as Acer davidii.  Two of the more common cultivars are:
    • ‘Ernest Wilson’   -   round compact crown, bark conspicuously striped, leaves unlobed, green
    • ‘George Forrest’   -   pink-red young stems, leaves reddish when unfolding then dark green, described as both unlobed and 3-lobed, triangular shaped.  NOTE: Seedlings of both cultivars may be in the nursery trade under the cultivar name, but of course not identical to the cultivar (van Gelderen and van Gelderen, 1999).
  • Acer davidii subsp. grosseri (or Acer grosseri)  -  leaves are gernerally unlobed but sometimes 3- or 5-lobed; 10-15 flowers per cluster.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Native to central China.
  • davidii: after the missionary priest, Jean Pierre Armand David (1826-1900), who discovered it in China in 1869.   In that year he also made his most famous discovery, the Giant Panda.
  • Acer davidii is one of several Acer species known as a Stripebark or Snakebark Maple.   Some of the others include: A. capillipes, A. pensylvanicum, A. rufinerve, and A. tegmentosum.
  • Oregon State Univ. campus: two northwest of Valley Library, one at the northwest corner

 

Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • leaves, young tree

    leaves, young tree

  • leaves, mature tree

    leaves, mature tree

  • leaves and fruit

    leaves and fruit

  • leaves and flower clusters

    leaves and flower clusters

  • leaves and fruit

    leaves and fruit

  • leaf and fruit

    leaf and fruit

  • trunk, bark

    trunk, bark

  • fruit clusters, winter

    fruit clusters, winter

  • winter twig, buds

    winter twig, buds