Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Acer palmatum
Japanese Maple
Sapindaceae
Garden escape. Urban bushland and gardens. Sydney area south to Wollongong. Blue Mountains. Canberra. Rarely elsewhere.
Introduced deciduous shrub or tree to about 7 m high. Leaves opposite each other, 5–10 cm long, 50-100 mm wide, deeply lobed with 5–11 lobes, occasionally completely divided, virtually hairless, usually with a tuft of short hairs near the attachment of the leaf stalk, margins irregulary toothed. Colouful leaves in Autumn. Bisexual and male flowers on the same plant. Flowers with 4-6 purplish-red sepals about 3 mm long, and 4-6 petals, pale yellowish or tinged pink, shorter than the sepals. Flowers in short drooping clusters to about 4 cm long. Flowers appearing with or before the leaves. Flowers Sep.–Oct. 'Seeds' red, turning pinky red, finally beige, about 15 mm long, with 1 wing, in pairs.
Family was Aceraceae.
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/283b2e3a-db31-4db1-a845-d732610df06e (accessed 2 January, 2021)
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