Plant: Shishigashira - Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple · Acer palmatum 'Shishigashira'

$260.00

Size: 15 gal

Light

Part Shade

Bloom

Spring

Mature size

15 ft tall20 ft wide

More about this plant

Shishigashira, the lion's head maple, has a distinctive sculptural presence: a compact, vase like habit with upright, non arching branches and very dense branching that widens midway up the tree. Its palmate, five to seven lobed leaves are crinkled, small and bright green, to about 2 inches long, packed tightly in tufts along the stems. The leaves hold their green colour later into fall than other maples, then burst into gold, orange and crimson. It grows slowly, about 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide in ten years and 7 to 15 feet over time, and prefers a moist, well drained soil with shelter from hot afternoon sun. Use it as an accent or specimen in a bed, a container or a small space.

Part Shade
Grows to 15 ft tall and 20 ft wide
Blooms in spring
Hardy in USDA zones 5-8
Deciduous foliage

Plant description

Shishigashira, the lion's head maple, has a distinctive sculptural presence: a compact, vase like habit with upright, non arching branches and very dense branching that widens midway up the tree. Its palmate, five to seven lobed leaves are crinkled, small and bright green, to about 2 inches long, packed tightly in tufts along the stems. The leaves hold their green colour later into fall than other maples, then burst into gold, orange and crimson. It grows slowly, about 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide in ten years and 7 to 15 feet over time, and prefers a moist, well drained soil with shelter from hot afternoon sun. Use it as an accent or specimen in a bed, a container or a small space.

Flowers: Small red to purple flowers appear in spring; attractive viewed closely but insignificant from a distance.
Foliage: Palmate, five to seven lobed, crinkled bright green leaves to 2 inches long, packed tightly in tufts along the stems, holding green later into fall than other maples before turning gold, orange and crimson.
Fruit: A schizocarp of two samaras with incurved wings forming an arch, becoming reddish in fall.
Bark & stems: Young stems vary from green to polished reddish brown; older branches assume a gray cast.
Light: Morning Sun, Dappled/Filtered Light
Native range: Japan, China, Korea, eastern Mongolia and southeastern Russia