Acer sieboldianum Seeds | Siebold’s Maple
LATIN NAME: Acer sieboldianum
COMMON NAME: Siebold’s Maple
Plant Profile
Acer sieboldianum is one of the Japanese maples that is common in the wild and rare in gardens. It grows as a small tree to about eight metres in the mountains of Honshu and Hokkaido, with a smooth grey trunk and a crown that opens wide rather than upright. The leaves are round in outline and cut into nine to eleven shallow lobes, each with a fine point.
The leaf is softly hairy on the underside and on the stalk, and that hair is the most reliable way to separate the species from Acer palmatum, which is smooth. The flowers open with the leaves in April, small and yellow-green in loose clusters, and the samaras that follow have wings set almost horizontally, which gives the fruit a broad, flat look.
Science & Biotechnology
The Japanese maples are a group of about a dozen species that hybridise wherever they meet, and A. sieboldianum sits close to A. palmatum and A. japonicum in the same section. The three are separated by leaf hair, by the number of lobes and by the angle of the samara wings, and intermediates are common enough that field botanists rely on a combination of characters.
Autumn colour in the group is produced by anthocyanins built in the leaf as the chlorophyll breaks down, and the sugars needed for that synthesis come from the leaf itself rather than from the tree. A dry summer therefore gives dull colour, and a wet, cool autumn with sunny days gives the best display. The species colours later than the garden cultivars, usually in November.
Uses & Benefits
The tree is grown for ornament, particularly in Japan, where it is planted in temple grounds and in mountain gardens for the late red colour. It is rarely used for timber, since the wood is soft and the trees are small, though it is turned for small bowls and for lacquer work.
In Japanese practice the sap is boiled down in small quantities in early spring, and the young leaves are occasionally salted and eaten, though both uses are local and minor. The species has no place in pharmacy and no commercial seed trade beyond the ornamental market.
Growing from Seed
Seed needs cold and should not be allowed to dry out. Sow fresh in autumn, cover with a centimetre of grit, and leave the pot outdoors through winter; germination comes in April. Stored seed should be rehydrated for a day and given three months at 4 degrees before sowing.
Plant in light shade with shelter from wind, since the leaves scorch in dry heat and the new growth is damaged by late frost. The species prefers a slightly acid soil with leaf mould and constant moisture, and it resents lime. It is hardy to about minus twenty, and it needs little pruning beyond the removal of crossing branches in winter.
Our Take
A restrained maple for a woodland garden, with better autumn colour than most of its garden relatives and none of their fuss.
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