The Genus Acer

The Genus Acer. . , Maples are native to a large range throughout the Northern Hemisphere., Acer, the incredibly diverse maple genus, includes more than 230 species and subspecies. Maples are widely recognized for their fall color change and for their palmate leaf shape: multiple lobes (pointed or rounded segments) radiate from a center point in a shape similar to that of an open human hand. Different species may have leaves with three, five, seven, or more than a dozen lobes. However, not all maples have palmate leaves, and you might not even recognize them as maples. Some maples have simple unlobed leaves, or compound leaves made up of multiple small leaflets., Maples are native to a broad range across the Northern Hemisphere, in North America, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. China and Japan have the richest diversity of native maples. This Collection includes species from all over the world, such as these Japanese maples that were planted in 1932 from seeds given to the Garden by a Japanese scientist. The Garden is part of the Plant Collections Network of North American gardens and arboreta whose combined maple collections represent about 64% of known Acer varieties, which helps to preserve the genus's biodiversity ever while this diversity is threatened in the wild. Some species in Asia and Europe are endangered by deforestation and climate change. In North America, maples are threatened by invasive pests and a complex of environmental stresses known as "maple decline."