Acer sempervirens

Description

Acer sempervirens is an evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub or small tree, one of the very few evergreen species in the genus. It grows to 10 m tall with a trunk up to 50 cm in diameter. The bark is dark grey, smooth in young trees, becoming scaly and shallowly fissured in mature trees. The shoots are green at first, becoming dull brown in the second year. The leaves are opposite, hard and leathery in texture, 1 - long and 1 - across, glossy dark green with a yellow 1 cm petiole, variably unlobed or three-lobed (often on the same shoot); the lobes have an entire (toothless) margin. The flowers are yellow-green, produced in small pendulous corymbs. The fruit is a double samara with two rounded, winged seeds, the wings 1.5 – long, spread at an acute angle.

It is one of the most drought- and heat-tolerant species in the genus, occurring on dry, sunny hillsides at moderate elevations. It is closely related to Acer monspessulanum from further north and west in Europe, differing from it in being a smaller, often shrubby tree, and in its smaller, evergreen leaves.

Distribution and habitat

This species is restricted to Greece, where it is found in the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and Crete, and to southwestern Anatolia in Turkey.

It thrives in mountainous regions, growing at elevations from 300 to 1,700 meters. The species is typically found in maquis, forest edges, and roadside thickets, and it occasionally forms pure stands on Greek islands. In Greece, it is particularly common on limestone slopes with scattered trees of Juniperus drupacea. On Crete, it grows alongside the endemic Zelkova abelicea, where it is often considered a pioneer or secondary forest species.

Cultivation and uses

Cretan maple is occasionally grown as an ornamental tree in western Europe; it was first introduced to Britain in 1752.

Gallery

File:CretanMaple1.jpg|Cretan maple from Kythera. File:Cretanmaple3.jpg|alt=|Another Cretan maple in Kythera.

References

References

1. "The Plant List, ''Acer sempervirens'' L.".
2. link. (2011-07-18)
3. Rushforth, K.. (1999). "''Trees of Britain and Europe''". [[HarperCollins.
4. "Encyclopedia of Life".
5. Mitchell, A. F.. (1982). "''The Trees of Britain and Northern Europe''". Collins.
6. (1992). "''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''". [[Macmillan Publishers.
7. (2018). "Acer sempervirens.".
8. "The gardens of the Jardin des Plantes".