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Acer hyrcanum Fisch. & Mey.

Modern name

Acer hyrcanum Fisch. & C.A.Mey.

A deciduous tree 20 to 50 ft high. Leaves five; more rarely three-lobed, 2 to 4 in. across, bright green above, paler, rather glaucous and glabrous beneath, except for a patch of down at the base and along the chief veins; stalk about as long as the blade. The three central lobes are parallel-sided, and each has several large, angular, blunt teeth; basal pair of lobes ovate. Flowers greenish yellow, produced during April in short-stalked corymbs. Fruit glabrous; keys 34 to 1 in. long; wings nearly parallel, 14 in. wide.

Native of S.E. Europe but represented in W. Asia by forms and varieties that differ to a greater or lesser degree from the plant described above. Even in S.E. Europe it is variable, and forms with small, leathery leaves found in Greece are sometimes regarded as a distinct species (A. reginae-amaliae Boiss.). A. hyrcanum is allied to A. opalus, but differs in the deeper and more angular lobing of the leaf. The form introduced is a slow-growing tree of neat shape. There are specimens 45 ft high at Westonbirt and in the University Parks, Oxford.



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, Maple Collection, 33 × 3 ft (1980); University Parks, Oxford, 42 × 334 ft (1981); Westonbirt, Glos., Willesley Drive, 50 × 434 ft (1977) and Broad Drive, 74 × 614 ft (1982).

Genus

Acer

Other species in the genus