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Acer 'Gold Coin'

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Credits

Dan Crowley (2020)

Recommended citation
Crowley, D. (2020), 'Acer 'Gold Coin'' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-gold-coin/). Accessed 2024-12-05.

Genus

  • Acer
  • Sect. Platanoidea

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

included
(botanical) Contained within another part or organ.
subspecies
(subsp.) Taxonomic rank for a group of organisms showing the principal characters of a species but with significant definable morphological differentiation. A subspecies occurs in populations that can occupy a distinct geographical range or habitat.
taxon
(pl. taxa) Group of organisms sharing the same taxonomic rank (family genus species infraspecific variety).

Credits

Dan Crowley (2020)

Recommended citation
Crowley, D. (2020), 'Acer 'Gold Coin'' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-gold-coin/). Accessed 2024-12-05.

Acer 'Gold Coin'

Acer 'Gold Coin' has an extraordinarily bright spring flush, fading through orange to yellowish-green. (Yorkshire Arboretum, May 2021) Image John Grimshaw.

This taxon is often attributed to Acer amplum (or occasionally to A. longipes – see taxonomic note) though it appears not to be true A. amplum as it shows influence of another member of section Platanoidea, possibly A. cappadocicum. It is thus treated here as distinct from A. amplum. A shrub or small tree (4 m after 20 years). Bark green, turning grey. Leaves 5-lobed, sometimes with two additional basal lobes, lobes broadly ovate, apices shortly acuminate, petioles with milky sap. (van Gelderen & van Gelderen 1999).

USDA Hardiness Zone 6

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)

Taxonomic note The treatment of this taxon as a cultivar of Acer longipes is likely a hangover from the treatment of van Gelderen et al. (1994), who included A. amplum as a subspecies of A. longipes.

Selected from a large shrub in the Aceretum at Plantentuin Esveld (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009), ‘Gold Coin’ is described as possessing ‘good vigour’ by le Hardÿ de Beaulieu (2003, p. 184). Its new growth is red, turning yellow and then, on older branches, green. In autumn it colours pale yellow (le Hardÿ de Beaulieu 2003). It is grown in both Europe and North America, with examples at collections including The Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, and the Dawes Arboretum, Ohio (American Public Gardens Association 2017), but is seldom seen, despite its spring brilliance.

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