Acer mandshuricum Maxim.

A small, deciduous tree, sometimes a shrub. Leaves composed of three leaflets, on a stalk up to 4 in. long. Terminal leaflet 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1 to 11⁄4 in. wide, lanceolate, pointed, saw-toothed, glabrous when mature except for hairs along the midrib; the side leaflets are rather smaller and shorter-stalked than the terminal one; main leaf-stalk often longer than the largest leaflet. Flowers greenish yellow, often produced in threes; stamens not protruding. Fruit glabrous, purplish when young; keys 11⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long; wings 1⁄2 in. wide, the pair forming an angle of about 90°.

Native of E. Siberia and Manchuria; trees in cultivation at Kew were received from St Petersburg in 1904. This maple is closely allied to A. nikoense and A. sutchuenense; the former differs in its hairy young leaves and flower-stalks, the latter in its many-flowered inflorescence and protruding stamens. It is very liable to injury by late spring frost. There is an example at Kew about 14 ft high and another of 22 ft, about twenty-five years planted, in the Chandlers Ford nursery of Messrs Hillier. Like many trees from continental N.E. Asia it is ill-adapted to our climate; in the hotter summers of New England it thrives and sets fertile seed.