Acer yui Fang

Acer yui is one of the few maple species that has been introduced to North American arboreta, but is yet to become established in European collections. Described by Chinese Acer monographer Professor Wen-pei Fang in 1934 from Sichuan and named for Chinese botanist T.T. Yu (Fang 1939; van Gelderen, de Jong & Oterdoom 1994), the species was introduced to the west earlier this century, in 2005 from Gansu, courtesy of that year’s NACPEC expedition. Seed from two trees was collected by Tony Aeillo, Kris Bachtell, Martin Scanlon, Kang Wang and Sun Xue Gang, both under NACPEC 05071 (Aiello 2006). The sampled population was at 1943 m asl in Diebu County, and included a tree with a diameter of 75 cm (PE01323487). The bark of mature trees was likened to that of shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), this exfoliating bark trait shared with mature examples of the closely related A. buergerianum.

Plants grown from NACPEC 05071 include examples at the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts, the Dawes Arboretum, Ohio and The Morton Arboretum, Illinois (American Public Gardens Association 2017). The Arnold grows three examples, the tallest of these is noted as 3 m tall (Arnold Arboretum 2026) and recorded as being in “good” condition in 2025 (M. Schill, pers. comm. 2025). It is one of two plants at the Arnold that were moved from the Morris Arboretum, Pennsylvania, and accessioned in 2021 (M. Schill, pers. comm. 2025).