Plant: Tamukeyama - Japanese Maple

Plant description

Tamukeyama is a graceful, mounding weeping red lace leaf Japanese maple, about 6 to 8 feet tall and 8 to 12 feet wide, with waxy deep red bark and cascading branches. Unstaked it grows only three or four feet tall on its own and can be trained to about six feet. Its new foliage unfolds deep crimson red and turns dark purple red, holding an excellent dark red until late summer, and fall colour is bright red. It is prized for holding that burgundy colour through hot, humid summers and for resisting scorch better than most other red lace leaf cultivars. Listed as a Japanese cultivar as early as 1710, it is hardy in zones 5 to 9.

Flowers

Small red to purple flowers appear in spring; attractive viewed closely but insignificant from a distance.

Foliage

Deeply cut lace leaves that unfold deep crimson red and turn dark purple red, holding an excellent dark red until late summer and resisting scorch better than most red lace leaf cultivars, then turning bright red in fall.

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

Plant details