Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

UNMISSABLE MAPLES

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS BOTANIC GARDEN’S ACER COLLECTION IS AN UNRIVALLED AUTUMN DRAWCARD. SENIOR HORTICULTURIST MARION WHITEHEAD EXPLAINS WHAT MAKES THESE SPECIMENS SO SPECIAL.

The genus Acer, or ‘maple’ as they are commonly known, are a beautiful and varied group of trees that provide some of the most vibrant colour in autumn gardens, not to mention delicious syrup and winged seeds that helicopter to the ground to the delight of children.

The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden houses an expansive Acer collection, with more than 365 specimens representing up to 198 species and cultivars. Unrivalled as the biggest draw to the Garden in autumn and providing huge interest year-round thanks to their varied and unusual bark, delicate leaf shape and exquisite habit, Mount Tomah’s maples are unmissable.

RARE AND SPECIAL MAPLES The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden is home to three maples considered significant by the International Union for Conservation of Nature: Acer pentaphyllum (of which only 501 wild specimens remain), Acer skutchii (the critically endangered ‘Cloud Forest Sugar Maple’ from Mexico) and Acer griseum (an endangered Acer known for its beautiful, showy, flaky bark).

The Garden also has some very old maple cultivars on display, such as Acer palmatum ‘Aka Shigitatsu Sawa’, which is seen in Japanese literature as far back as 1710, with poems dedicated to the cultivar. ‘Aka Shigitatsu Sawa’ means “near a swamp where solitary snipes start out”, and an elegant specimen of the tree can be found in the European Woodland section.

ACER ANATOMY Maples readily interbreed, crossing with one another easily and creating a huge variation in their form, habit, bark, leaf shape and colour. As a result, there are more than 5,000 known cultivars.

One of the easily identifiable features of Acers is their distinctive fruits. Known as “samaras”, Acer seeds occur in pairs, each with a wing made of papery tissue that “helicopters” the fruit down from the tree, dispersing the seed far from the parent plant to give the new sapling space to grow.

JAPANESE MAPLES Maples are an integral part of Japanese culture, and synonymous with Japanese gardens, having been cultivated as far back as 614 AD. The peak of maplemania in Japan occurred during the Edo era (1603–1867), with maple-viewing parties, gardens centred around the trees, and maple bonsais being the height of fashion. Acers and Japanese gardens are still inextricably linked today. Acers considered to be ‘Japanese maples’ include Acer palmatum, Acer shirasawanum, Acer buergerianum, Acer crataegifolium and their cultivars.

Mount Tomah is home to 141 species and cultivars of Japanese maples, with leaf colours varying dramatically from butter-yellow to bright pink, vibrant orange and deep merlot-red, and habits ranging from dwarf to 15-metre-high specimens, with both weeping and standard varieties.

As the season turns cooler and the summer heat fades, the maples dotted around the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden are unmissable. Best viewed wrapped in a warm coat and scarf, little will give you that crisp, comfortable autumnal feeling like strolling through a collection of Acers.

‘The peak of maple-mania in Japan occurred during the Edo era’