12/21/2023 0 Comments Weeping japanese maple![]() The Seattle Japanese Garden also contains four younger Dissectum Group trees, but none-including two nearby trees, located across the path in Area C-are comparable to Area B’s magnificent specimen. The Dissectum Group, including our Garden’s entry specimen, is distinguished by leaves with narrow lobes very deeply divided and deeply dissected into sub-lobes. To distinguish among the hundreds of cultivars that have been developed, not only in Japan, but throughout the world, various groups have been created, most based on how the leaf lobes are divided. They selected for leaf size, texture, form, and color (including color changes from spring through fall), for the colors of trunk and branches, and for tree size and habit, breeding a remarkable diversity of named forms. The Japanese have revered Japanese maples for more than 300 years, developing hundreds of cultivars. dissectum atropurpureum is the botanical name used by most authorities. It may have been planted in its current location more than a decade before the Japanese Garden was created. Washington Park Arboretum (WPA) records are unclear, but this iconic maple was received either as Acer palmatum dissectum (weeping laceleaf Japanese maple) or Acer palmatum dissectum atropurpureum (weeping red-foliaged laceleaf Japanese maple), which more accurately describes its red foliage. ![]() With its red-toned, finely-divided leaves and gracefully cascading branches, it’s the only form of Japanese maple most people are familiar with. An iconic tree within our Garden, it has a bold architectural branching structure, created by skillful pruning, and beautiful laceleaf foliage-burgundy-red in spring, bronzy-green in summer, and glowing orange-red in autumn. But I haven’t yet written about the very old and striking specimen just past the entry gate in Area B, west of the path-the Japanese maple Garden visitors are most likely to admire. Acer palmatum is my favorite deciduous tree, and in past blog articles I’ve written about several of the Garden’s most beautiful cultivars.
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