Painted Maple

Growth habit

Tree

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Location

Cornell Class of 1923 Flowering Tree Collection

Source of plant

Nina Bassuk

Description

Species description: Trees to 20 m tall, andromonoecious. Bark gray. Branchlets slender, glabrous; winter buds subglobose, scales 4 pairs. Leaves deciduous; petiole 4-6 cm, slender, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, oblong, (8-)9-11(-12) × (4-)6-8(-12) cm, papery, abaxially glabrous except for yellowish or whitish hairs on veins or at vein axils, sometimes abaxially pubescent, adaxially glabrous, base truncate, subtruncate, or hastate, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 9-lobed; lobes triangular or ovate, margin entire, apex acuminate or subcaudate-acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate-corymbose, ca. 4 × 4 cm, glabrous, numerous flowered; peduncles 1-2 cm. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Sepals 5, greenish yellow, oblong, 2-8 mm, ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals 5, whitish, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, ca. 3 mm. Stamens 8, shorter than petals, glabrous. Ovary glabrous or glabrescent, rudimentary in staminate flowers; style very short, glabrous; stigmas revolute. Fruit yellowish when mature; nutlets flat, compressed, 1-1.3 cm × 8-10 mm; wing oblong, including nutlet 3-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm, wings spreading variously. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep. 2n = 26. Forests, usually in valleys, also cultivated; sea level to 3300 m.

USDA Hardiness Zone

5