David Maple, Père David's Maple               A-ser da-VID-e-i

• 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 cultivar may be in the nursery trade under the cultivar name, but of course not identical to the cultivar (van Gelderen and van Gelderen, 1999).
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Native to central China.
• davidii: after the Jesuit priest, Jean Pierre Armand David, who discovered it in China in 1869.
• 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: south of Adams Hall near 15th St. and A St.