Palmatum is the species name and in this case means that the maple tree being identified is from the Japanese Maple family.
Acer is the generic name, or the genus, and Acer is used to identify any maple tree. So let’s break down the Latin name Acer palmatum. But there should always be just one Latin name. The Latin name is really the most dependable way to identify a plant because many plants end up with numerous common names, depending upon who you are talking to. All plants have a common name and a Latin name. First allow me to explain exactly what Acer palmatum means in terms that you and I can understand. The majority of the Japanese Maples you’ll encounter in your daily travels are from the Acer palmatum family, so that’s what we’ll discuss in this article.
Sponsored: Sign Up To My Free Gardening Newsletter and Get 10 Free Gardening Gifts So for the remainder of this article we’ll discuss growing from seed. In order to graft or bud, you must first have a Japanese Maple seedling that you can use as the rootstock.
You and I at home? Let’s stick to the basics of growing from seed, grafting and budding. Some Japanese Maples are also grown via tissue culture which involves a laboratory and test tube like conditions. Budding is really just another form of grafting, except instead of using a small cutting from the desired parent plant, you work with a single bud from the desired plant. There are a number of methods which include growing them from seed, grafting a piece of the desired variety onto a Japanese Maple seedling, and budding. you might ask, how do I go about propagating a Japanese Maple? However, all of this tends to complicate the process of propagating Japanese Maples because very few of these numerous cultivars will come true to the parent plant when grown from seed. The different varieties are so unique that you can easily use several of them in a residential or commercial landscape without the slightest hint of redundancy. And that’s why the Japanese Maple is by far, one of the most versatile plants you can add to your landscape. They also have as many different variations of leaf size and shape as you can imagine. Japanese Maples come in all kinds of different sizes, different shapes, and have a variety of different growing characteristics.