Field Maple
Encyclopedia
Acer campestre, common name
Field Maple, is a maple
native to much of Europe, north to southern Scotland (where it is the only native maple), Denmark, Poland and Belarus, and also southwest Asia from Turkey to the Caucasus
, and north Africa in the Atlas Mountains
. In North America it is known as Hedge Maple and in Australia it is sometimes called Common Maple.
tree reaching 15–25 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter, with finely fissured, often somewhat corky bark
. The shoots are brown, with dark brown winter bud
s. The leaves
are in opposite pairs, 5–16 cm long (including the 3–9 cm petiole) and 5–10 cm broad, with five blunt, rounded lobes with a smooth margin. Usually monoecious, the flower
s are produced in spring at the same time as the leaves open, yellow-green, in erect clusters 4–6 cm across, and are insect pollinated. The fruit
is a samara
with two winged seed
s aligned at 180º, each seed 8–10 mm wide, flat, with a 2 cm wing.
There are two varieties
, not accepted as distinct by all authorities:
The closely related Acer miyabei
replaces it in eastern Asia.
of disturbed areas; it typically is not among the first trees to colonise a freshly disturbed area, but instead seeds in under the existing vegetation. It is very shade-tolerant during the initial stages of its life, but it has higher light requirements during its seed-bearing years. It exhibits rapid growth initially, but is eventually overtaken and replaced by other trees as the forest matures. It is most commonly found on neutral to alkaline soils, more rarely on acidic soil.
Diseases include a leaf spot fungus Didymosporina aceris, a mildew
Uncinula
bicornis, a canker
Nectria galligena, and Verticillium wilt
Verticillium alboatrum. The leaves are also sometimes damaged by gall mites in the genus Aceria, and the aphid
Periphyllus villosus.
is white, hard and strong, and used for furniture, flooring, wood turning and musical instruments, though the small size of the tree and its relatively slow growth make it an unimportant wood.
It is locally naturalised
in parts of the United States and more rarely in New Zealand.
The hybrid maple Acer × zoeschense
has A. campestre as one of its parents.
s of Acer campestre, selected for their foliage or habit, or occasionally both; several have been lost to cultivation.
enthusiasts. The dwarf cultivar 'Microphyllum' is especially useful in this regard. A. campestre bonsai have an appearance distinct from those selected from some other maples such as A. palmatum with more frilly, translucent, leaves. The shrubby habit and smallish leaves of A. campestre respond well to techniques encouraging ramification
and leaf reduction.
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
Field Maple, is a maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
native to much of Europe, north to southern Scotland (where it is the only native maple), Denmark, Poland and Belarus, and also southwest Asia from Turkey to the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, and north Africa in the Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
. In North America it is known as Hedge Maple and in Australia it is sometimes called Common Maple.
Description
It is a deciduousDeciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
tree reaching 15–25 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter, with finely fissured, often somewhat corky bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
. The shoots are brown, with dark brown winter bud
Bud
In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have...
s. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are in opposite pairs, 5–16 cm long (including the 3–9 cm petiole) and 5–10 cm broad, with five blunt, rounded lobes with a smooth margin. Usually monoecious, the flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are produced in spring at the same time as the leaves open, yellow-green, in erect clusters 4–6 cm across, and are insect pollinated. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a samara
Samara (fruit)
A samara is a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent . It is a winged achene...
with two winged seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s aligned at 180º, each seed 8–10 mm wide, flat, with a 2 cm wing.
There are two varieties
Variety (biology)
In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species: as such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name....
, not accepted as distinct by all authorities:
- Acer campestre var. campestre. Fruit downy.
- Acer campestre var. leiocarpum (Opiz) Wallr. (syn. A. campestre subsp. leiocarpum). Fruit hairless.
The closely related Acer miyabei
Acer miyabei
Acer miyabei is a species of maple native to Japan, where it occurs in Hokkaidō and the Tōhoku region in northern Honshū....
replaces it in eastern Asia.
Ecology
Field Maple is an intermediate species in the ecological successionEcological succession
Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, and refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community...
of disturbed areas; it typically is not among the first trees to colonise a freshly disturbed area, but instead seeds in under the existing vegetation. It is very shade-tolerant during the initial stages of its life, but it has higher light requirements during its seed-bearing years. It exhibits rapid growth initially, but is eventually overtaken and replaced by other trees as the forest matures. It is most commonly found on neutral to alkaline soils, more rarely on acidic soil.
Diseases include a leaf spot fungus Didymosporina aceris, a mildew
Mildew
Mildew refers to certain kinds of molds or fungi.In Old English, it meant honeydew , and later came to mean mildew in the modern sense of mold or fungus....
Uncinula
Uncinula
Uncinula is a genus of fungi. Its species are plant pathogens that cause powdery mildew diseases on various plant hosts. The genus is characterized by its dark chasmothecia which bear filamentous, hyaline appendages with hooked tips. Over one hundred species have been described from mostly...
bicornis, a canker
Canker
Canker and anthracnose are general terms for a large number of different plant diseases, characterised by broadly similar symptoms including the appearance of small areas of dead tissue, which grow slowly, often over a period of years. Some are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately...
Nectria galligena, and Verticillium wilt
Verticillium wilt
Verticillium Wilt is a wilt disease of over 300 species of eudicot plants caused by one of two species of Verticillium fungus, V. dahliae and V. albo-atrum. Many economically important plants are susceptible including cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers and ornamentals, as well as others...
Verticillium alboatrum. The leaves are also sometimes damaged by gall mites in the genus Aceria, and the aphid
Aphid
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...
Periphyllus villosus.
Cultivation
Field Maple is widely grown as an ornamental tree in parks and large gardens. The woodWood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
is white, hard and strong, and used for furniture, flooring, wood turning and musical instruments, though the small size of the tree and its relatively slow growth make it an unimportant wood.
It is locally naturalised
Naturalisation (biology)
In biology, naturalisation is any process by which a non-native organism spreads into the wild and its reproduction is sufficient to maintain its population. Such populations are said to be naturalised....
in parts of the United States and more rarely in New Zealand.
The hybrid maple Acer × zoeschense
Acer × zoeschense
Acer × zoeschense is a hybrid maple, a cross between Acer campestre , and either Acer lobelii or Acer cappadocicum . While Field Maple parentage is universally accepted, the second parent is uncertain, though the tree's extensive production of root sprouts favours A. cappadocicum over A...
has A. campestre as one of its parents.
Cultivars
There are over 30 known cultivarCultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s of Acer campestre, selected for their foliage or habit, or occasionally both; several have been lost to cultivation.
- 'Carnival', 'Commodore'Acer campestre 'Commodore'The Field Maple Acer campestre cultivar Commodore is of obscure origin.-Description:'Commodore' is a medium-size tree with clear yellow foliage, occasionally flushed red, in autumn.-Cultivation:...
, 'Compactum', 'Eastleigh Weeping'Acer campestre 'Eastleigh Weeping'The Field Maple Acer campestre cultivar Eastleigh Weeping or Weeping Eastleigh Field Maple is a weeping tree that originated as a seedling at the Hillier & Son nursery, Ampfield, England and was released in 1980. No trees are known to survive of this cultivar.-Description:The tree is noted for its...
, 'Elegant'Acer campestre 'Elegant'The Field Maple Acer campestre cultivar Elegant was released by the Gelderse Nursery in Opheusden, Netherlands in 1990. -Description:The tree grows to a height of...
, 'Elsrijk'Acer campestre 'Elsrijk'The Field Maple Acer campestre cultivar Elsrijk is an American selection made from established city trees in Ohio in 1953, and introduced to the Netherlands in 1985, where it has become the most popular campestre cultivar...
, 'Evenly Red', 'Fastigiatum', 'Green Weeping', 'Leprechaun', 'Lienco', 'Marjolein', 'Nanum', 'Pendulum', 'Postelense', 'Pulverulentum', 'Punctatissimum', 'Puncticulatum'Acer campestre 'Puncticulatum'Acer campestre 'Puncticulatum, or Weeping Speckled Field Maple, is a weeping tree and a cultivar of Acer campestre, the Field Maple. It was first described by Schwerin in 1893. No trees are known to survive of this cultivar.-Description:...
, 'Queen Elisabeth', 'Red Shine', 'Royal Ruby', 'Ruby Glow', 'Schwerinii', 'Senator', 'Silver Celebration', 'Silver Dawn', 'Streetwise', 'Tauricum', 'Tomentosum', 'William Caldwell'Acer campestre 'William Caldwell'The Field Maple cultivar William Caldwell was cloned from a seedling discovered at Knutsford, England, in 1976 by Donovan Caldwell Leaman, head nurseryman at the now-defunct William Caldwell Nursery...
, 'Zorgvlied'.
Bonsai
A. campestre (and the similar A. monspessulanum) are popular among bonsaiBonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
enthusiasts. The dwarf cultivar 'Microphyllum' is especially useful in this regard. A. campestre bonsai have an appearance distinct from those selected from some other maples such as A. palmatum with more frilly, translucent, leaves. The shrubby habit and smallish leaves of A. campestre respond well to techniques encouraging ramification
Ramification (botany)
In botany, ramification is the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, i.e. trunk into branches, branches into increasingly smaller branches, etc. Gardeners stimulate the process of ramification through pruning, thereby making trees, shrubs and other plants bushier and...
and leaf reduction.