| English Name | Tutcher's Maple |
|---|---|
| Status in China | Least Concern (LC) |
Description:
Deciduous trees, 5-10 m tall; bark brown; branchlets slender, glabrous. Leaves papery, oval in outline, 6-7cm long and 8-11 cm wide, base rounded or subtruncate, trilobed or sometimes 5-lobed; lobes triangular-ovate, rarely ovate-oblong, apex acute or acuminate, margin serrulate, with appressed acute teeth, sometimes entire near base, glabrous or with tufted hairs at vein axils abaxially; petiole 2-3 cm long, glabrous. Panicles terminal, 6-7 cm long, peduncles c. 3 cm long; sepals 4, yellowish green, ovate-oblong, ca. 2.5 mm long; petals 4, pale yellowish white, obovate, ca. 2 mm long. Fruits pale reddish at first, yellowish later; nutlets 1.5-2.5 cm long, ca. 0.8-1 cm in diam.; wings spreading at an obtuse angle.
Distribution:
Victoria Peak, Ma On Shan, Sunset Peak. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang.
Habitat and Ecology:
In thin forests. Flowering: Apr.; fruiting: Sept.
First discovered in Lantau Island in 1904, it is an endemic species of China with the type locality in Hong Kong and is thus of value for studying Chinese flora. In Hong Kong, most of the localities of its occurrence are in Country Parks under protection. Living specimens are displayed in the Shing Mun Arboretum.
References:
羅獻瑞, 1995: 廣東植物誌3:274, 圖184。廣東科技出版社，廣州。
