Acer argutum Maxim.

Acer argutum is endemic to Japan, where it is the sole representative of Section Arguta. The type species of its section, argutum translates as ‘sharply toothed’, in reference to serrate leaf margins. With rough foliage and deeply impressed veins, a likeness of the leaf was, for many years, used as the logo of the Maple Society.

Arriving in Britain as seed sent to the Veitch Nurseries by Maries in 1881, it was introduced to North America eight years later when Veitch sent seed to the Arnold Arboretum (Jacobson 1996). Not among the suite of Japanese species renowned for their autumn colour, it can produce satisfactory shades of yellow and gold, if only for a short period.

A tree typically of modest proportions, examples of the species are also somewhat short-lived in cultivation. The UK and Ireland champion was only planted at Westonbirt in 1991 and measured at 8 m tall in 2024 (The Tree Register 2025), but it is steadily succumbing to honey fungus (Armillaria sp.) as of August 2025. Of unknown origin, it is however being succeeded at Westonbirt by several young, wild origin specimens, including two plants grown from seed collected by Westonbirt staff in 2008 from 1500 m in Chuba District, Honshu. Three plants from BCJMMT 282 are also at Westonbirt, from 1130 m asl, in Nakatsuga City, Gifu Prefecture, Honshu. Grown in relatively open situations exposed to high levels of sunlight, each of these plants showed the effects of the hot, dry summer of 2025 (pers. obs). Plants from BCJMMT 282 have been a mixed bag in Scottish collections: one is performing poorly on the Chinese Hillside at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; another at Dawyck has made a fine multi-stemmed tree 6.5 m tall by spring 2026; while one at Cluny House Gardens, Perthshire, has reached c. 4 m × 4 cm dbh in well drained soils beneath an oak (P. Brownless, T. Gifford, T. Christian, pers. comms. 2026).

A plant of 8 m tall was recorded at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, in 2014. Examples of 7 m were recorded at Bedgebury in 2024 and at the Yorkshire Arboretum in 2021 (The Tree Register 2025).

Acer argutum is less-well represented in North American collections than other members of Sect. Arguta, by wild-collected material or otherwise. Its rarity since its introduction was noted by Jacobson (1996). Two plants propagated from wild-origin material at the University of Tokyo Botanic Garden grow at the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts. Accessioned in 2014, they were recorded at just over 2 m tall in 2025 (Arnold Arboretum 2025). The species grows well at Arboretum Wespelaar, Belgium, where it benefited from some irrigation in the dry summer of 2025. The species is represented at Rogow Arboretum, Poland, by plants of cultivated origin.