Acer fabri

Evergreen Chinese Maple or Emerald Jade Maple. This unusual evergreen maple has leaves which are entire or non-lobbed, and they possess a shiny, almost glossy appearance. It was introduced at the turn of the last century by noted plant collector from Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, E. M. "Chinese" Wilson. It is so unlike what most of us associate with maples: evergreen and entire leaves, that one might confuse it with a different genus all together. The flowers are also most unusual in that they are in hanging panicles with a star-like shape. There is some variation from seed grown plants with some having brilliant red new growth, and red seed (samaras) which follow the showy flowers. It will grow in full sun to rather dense shade, and if one is growing it into the upper reaches of its range, expect some leaf-burn and defoliation from low temperatures, It is known to grow even into zone 5. When we have reached single digits, the parent tree from which we get our seed and cuttings, has shown no leaf burn at all. It is amazing how much mis-information is out there on the internet. Wikipedia states, "Acer fabri is a shrub rarely more than 1 meter tall." Whereas, our parent tree is a good 20 feet tall. It didn't even break up in our heavy ice storm in 2014 when The Weather Channel parked here for five days. Plants we offer are cutting grown from the plant pictured.

Zones 6-10