This blog tries to get a bit deeper into the nature of the trees around me, mainly in the Low Weald of Kent.

Tuesday 21 August 2018

Acer cappadocicum, the Cappadocian Maple


Acer cappadocicum is a fairly large tree from Asia Minor - Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus across to China. It SHOULD be fairly easily recognised as its got quite distinctive un-toothed triangular palmately-arranged lobes to its leaves. It is said to have obvious milky sap in its leaves, and I saw some evidence of this.

More says it always throws up root suckers - but I didn't see any root suckers at Cobtree Manor Park, where I came across this strong contender for the ID in mid-August 2018. The leaves look the right shape, but do seem quite large (up to 15 cm) in relation to the dimensions given in this book, 5-10 cm. However Wikipedia supports up to 15 cm.

The tree is quite a late introduction to Western Europe, said to be as late as 1838. It is thought to be commonly planted in large parks and gardens - Leeds Castle for example has a bit of a collection of Acer cappadocicum.

The day after I first saw this tree at Cobham Manor Park, I saw a second tree just by the car park at Camer Park near Meopham! The tree is quite a light green overall, covered with multitudes of yellowish good-sized double samaras in the middle of August.






And, when I checked, there were indeed quite a few root suckers.


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