Acer opalus

Snowball maple (Acer opalus )

The snowball maple (Acer opalus ), usually Schneeballblättriger maple, also Spring maple or maple Italian called, is a species of the genus of the maples (Acer). It is used in temperate latitudes rarely as ornamental tree.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance, bark and bud

The snowball maple grows as a deciduous, large shrub or tree that can reach heights of growth of up to 20 meters. He has on a stocky, short trunk open, wide, spherical to dome-shaped canopy. The bark of young branches is bald, later olive - brown and fissured lengthwise and is studded with numerous oblong- oval lenticels. The bark is reddish- gray at first, later it gets increasingly rough, at margins upturned scales, which leave after dropping orange-brown stains or is cracked up checkered furrowed.

The decussate, something of the branch arranged from standing lateral buds are narrow, pointed - ovate, with a length of about 8 mm. They have light-brown, gray - whitish hairy, pointed forward bud scales. The dark brown edge of the bud scales is ciliated whitish. Those with a length of 12 millimeters slightly larger terminal bud is similar to the lateral buds.

Sheet

The oppositely arranged leaves are continually divided into petiole and leaf blade. Perform no milk juice. The petiole is 10 to 15 inches long and reddish on the top. The 12 to 14 inches wide leaf blade is usually blunt -lobed, or rarely clear, five-lobed, with the front three lobes are cut very wide, coarsely and irregularly notched. The upper leaf surface is dark green and the blue- gray - green leaf underside is at least soft hairy along the main veins. The fall color is yellow to orange.

Inflorescence and flower

The flowers appear simultaneously with or shortly before the foliage leaves in April. In doldenrispigen nodding inflorescences are 10 to 50 long stemmed flowers together. The hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers are pale yellow to yellow - green.

Fruit

Often suspended from a thick, curved handle nut fruit have a diameter of about 1 centimeter. The fruits have pink- greenish to reddish brown, 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long wings which terminate at an acute angle to about a right angle.

Ecology

The snowball Maple specializes in insect pollination. The flowers produce abundant sweet nectar and are therefore served despite their inconspicuous color enough of bees.

Occurrence

The snowball maple is widespread in the mountains of the western Mediterranean and is present there in mountain forests. It is also common in North Africa. In Central Europe it grows as a wild form only in the mildest locations, north of the Alps, the Swiss Jura and near Grenzach (D).

The snowball maple is considered partial shade tree species and colonizes the collinear, rare montane altitudinal zone. It requires a sunny location on the medium to shallow soil, moderately fresh, nutrient-rich, base -calcareous clay soils. You meet him especially in beech and oak forests, sedge beech forests, oak and beech forests slope. Even deciduous forests with boxwood, downy oak and linden maple forests are just as hornbeam forests to its regular growing sites.

The snowball maple is rarely used as an ornamental plant in parks.

System

The first publication of Acer opalus was in 1768 by Philip Miller in the Gardeners Dictionary, 8th edition, Acer number 8

Acer opalus is standard monspessulana from the section in the genus Acer Acer.

There are Acer opalus at least two subspecies:

• Acer opalus subsp. obtusatum (. Waldst. & Kit ex Willd. ) Gams ( syn.. obtusatum Acer Waldst & Kit ex Willd, Acer opalus var obtusatum ( Waldst. & Kit ex Willd ) Rchb. .. .. ): It comes in the northern Algeria, Albania, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy (including Sicily) and Corsica before.
• Acer opalus Mill subsp. opalus: It is used in Germany before (only small area ), Switzerland (only small area ), Italy, France (including Corsica), and Spain.

Swell

• Schneeballblättriger maple. In: FloraWeb.de. ( Description section )