Amur Maple or Trident Maple?

[IowaBonsai]

Hello,

New to Bonsai, but have been a Bonsai appreciator for a while. I found this growing in my yard this spring and was only a few inches tall. Is this an Amur Maple or a Trident Maple? I'm pretty sure my neighbor has a Trident Maple Tree in his yard, so this could be from that, but there did used to be an Amur Maple in my yard previously. Not sure.

I accidentally left the pot on the ground and a rabbit came and ate all the leaves and chopped off the top... so I accidentally defoliated the tree.. leaves came back thankfully. I tried to wire the tree to get a new leader to grow upright, but left the wire on too long as seen by the marks on the trunk. I'm thinking I'll plant it in the ground in the spring to thicken up the trunk a bit. Thoughts?

 

[sdavis]

Hello,

New to Bonsai, but have been a Bonsai appreciator for a while. I found this growing in my yard this spring and was only a few inches tall. Is this an Amur Maple or a Trident Maple? I'm pretty sure my neighbor has a Trident Maple Tree in his yard, so this could be from that, but there did used to be an Amur Maple in my yard previously. Not sure.

I accidentally left the pot on the ground and a rabbit came and ate all the leaves and chopped off the top... so I accidentally defoliated the tree.. leaves came back thankfully. I tried to wire the tree to get a new leader to grow upright, but left the wire on too long as seen by the marks on the trunk. I'm thinking I'll plant it in the ground in the spring to thicken up the trunk a bit. Thoughts?

View attachment 329699

I'd go with Amur.

 

[leatherback]

yes amur

 

[sorce]

Nice.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

+1 for Amur. Tridents won’t make it outside all year in your climate.

 

[Kanorin]

This looks like Acer rubrum to my eye.
How big are those leaves?

 

[IowaBonsai]

This looks like Acer rubrum to my eye.
How big are those leaves?

The bigger leaves are 2.5 inches and the smaller ones are an inch or less.

 

[LittleDingus]

Plucked these off a couple of my trees just now for a side by side:



Left is amur, right is trident. Pick your poison

 

[IowaBonsai]

Plucked these off a couple of my trees just now for a side by side:

View attachment 329824

Left is amur, right is trident. Pick your poison

Cool to see the comparison! Thanks!

 

[IowaBonsai]

New question for everyone: My goal with this is to keep it a relatively small tree and I want to achieve leaves as small as possible. Is there a way to stop new growth from producing large leaves without defoliating?
I will probably defoliate every other year. Will new growth in the spring always produce large leaves?

 

[leatherback]

New question for everyone: My goal with this is to keep it a relatively small tree and I want to achieve leaves as small as possible. Is there a way to stop new growth from producing large leaves without defoliating?
I will probably defoliate every other year. Will new growth in the spring always produce large leaves?

lots of ramification. small pot. Low N fertilizer

 

[zanduh]

New question for everyone: My goal with this is to keep it a relatively small tree and I want to achieve leaves as small as possible. Is there a way to stop new growth from producing large leaves without defoliating?
I will probably defoliate every other year. Will new growth in the spring always produce large leaves?

If you are defoliating your Amur every other year the other thing you can be doing is making sure your Amur has full sun. They are very hardy trees and can take it.

 

[IowaBonsai]

This looks like Acer rubrum to my eye.
How big are those leaves?

Coming back to this. Almost every picture I see of Amur leaves, there are no extra lobes at the bottom, at least not as pronounced as this. I honestly think this looks more like Acer Rubrum, yet everyone else thinks Amur?Still confused.

 

[Kanorin]

Coming back to this. Almost every picture I see of Amur leaves, there are no extra lobes at the bottom, at least not as pronounced as this. I honestly think this looks more like Acer Rubrum, yet everyone else thinks Amur?Still confused.
View attachment 332268

I still stand by Rubrum. 110%.

 

[PA_Penjing]

Maples have a lot of personality, it comes out in the leaves. just like in JM, you'll find all different types of leaves within a species. I'm seeing this thread for the first time and I'm 98% certain that's ginnala. Here's a picture of an Amur (ginnala) leaf that looks just like yours.

 

[PA_Penjing]

If you need more convincing google image search "acer rubrum leaf" I think that will end the debate pretty quickly

 

[SC1989]

my from seed amur . From a nearby tree

 

[HorseloverFat]

+1 for Amur. Tridents won’t make it outside all year in your climate.

This was my thought, too.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Nice.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

Also this!

Ginnalas rule.

 

[IowaBonsai]

2.5 yrs later