Acer stachyophyllum Hiern

Acer stachyophyllum is the most frequently encountered member of Section Arguta in our area, often mistaken for a snake-bark maple (Section Macrantha) because of its green and sometimes striated bark. However, the combination of long, arching branches and a multi-stemmed habit help distinguish it (and recall other members of Section Arguta), though the chief detail separating this species from the snakebark maples are differences in the flowers. In A. stachyophyllum and other members of Section Arguta, these have four petals and four sepals. The snakebark maples of Section Macrantha have flowers with five petals and five sepals.

The species was introduced to western cultivation by Ernest Wilson, who collected it for the Veitch Nurseries in Hubei Province on his first expedition to China in 1901 (W 680) as A. tetramerum (Bean 1976). That name is now considered a synonym of subsp. betulifolium, though living material needed to verify the identity of this introduction has not been found. The species was later introduced numerous times by George Forrest under F 11252 (recorded as A. stachyophyllum by Bean 1976), 30462, 30625, 29396 and 28596 (as A. tetramerum by Bean 1976), as well as by Frank Kingdon Ward (KW 10965) (Bean 1976).

Noted by Bean (1976) and still applicable today, there are numerous good specimens at Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, UK. These include the current UK and Ireland champion, measured at 15.2 m tall in 2024 (The Tree Register 2025). Cross-referencing Tree Register data with Forrest collecting numbers suggest that, as speculated by The Tree Register (2025) this plant is likely grown from F 28596. This and F 11252 are represented at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, from successful re-propagations.

Acer stachyophyllum has been well-collected in recent decades, with multiple introductions made by the SICH teams from numerous expeditions in Sichuan. The earliest of these was on the first SICH expedition in 1988 (SICH 198), though material only appears to be recorded from Sonoma Botanical Garden, California. Later collections include SICH 1740, collected in 1996. TIBT 43 was collected in eastern Tibet in September 1995, when the SICH collecting team comprising Charles Erskine, Hans Fliegner, Charles Howick and Bill McNamara, made a brief sojourn into the neighbouring region, with a resulting material including two plants at the Yorkshire Arboretum, UK. Also at the Yorkshire Arboretum are plants grown from seed gathered by Chris Brickell and Alan Leslie near Lijiang, Yunnan in 1988 under B&L 12165. Multiple collections of Yunnan provenance are growing at Edinburgh, and material collected in Bhutan is at Benmore (Sinclair & Long 1540) (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2026).

At its best, Acer stachyophyllum can make an elegant tree, with strongly coloured young stems providing good winter interest, though it is not as desirable as many members of the snakebark maple group, with which it is often compared and confused.