''Acer tataricum'', the Tatar maple or Tatarian maple, is a species of

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

widespread across central and southeastern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and temperate

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, from

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, and in some circumscriptions, with a disjunct population in eastern Asia in northern and central

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

. The species is named after the

Tatar peoples Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of

Ecosystema
''Acer tataricum''
(in Russian

Description

''Acer tataricum'' is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

spreading

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

or small

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

growing to tall, with a short trunk up to diameter and slender branches. The

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

is thin, pale brown, and smooth at first but becoming shallowly fissured on old plants. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are opposite and simple, broadly ovate, long and broad, unlobed or with three or five shallow lobes, and matt green above; the leaf margin is coarsely and irregularly toothed; the leaf petiole is slender, often pink-tinged, long. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are whitish-green, diameter, produced in spreading panicles in spring as the leaves open. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

is a paired reddish

samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

, long with a wing, maturing in late summer to early autumn.Flora of China, ''Acer tataricum'' Linnaeus, 1753. 鞑靼槭 da da qi
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Taxonomy

Subspecies accepted by

the Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant specie ...

maintained by

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

in London: *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''aidzuense'' (Franch.) P.C.DeJong . Japan. Included in Amur maple when that is treated as a separate species. * ''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''ginnala'' (Maxim.) Wesm. (Amur maple, syn. ''Acer ginnala''). Korea, easternmost Mongolia, eastern Russia, northeastern China *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''semenovii'' (Regel & Herder) A.E.Murray - Central Asia in Afghanistan, southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, westernmost Tibet *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''tataricum'' - Caucasus, Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Iran *''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''theiferum'' (W.P.Fang) Y.S.Chen & P.C.de Jong - eastern China. Included in Amur maple when that is treated as a separate species. Some botanists treat ''Acer tataricum'' subsp. ''ginnala'' as a separate species ''Acer ginnala''. The two differ conspicuously in the glossy, deeply lobed leaves of ''A. ginnala'', compared to the matt, unlobed or only shallowly lobed leaves of ''A. tataricum'', and are separated by a roughly 3,000 km range gap.

Gallery

Cultivation and uses

Tatar maple is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant in gardens throughout Europe and also in North America. In Russia, it is valued in farmland

shelterbelt A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edg ...

s. It is locally

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

and sometimes invasive in eastern North America.

References

External links

*
photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden
{{Taxonbar, from=Q162728 tataricum Trees of Europe Trees of Asia Flora of Central Asia Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of Eastern Europe Flora of Western Asia Flora of temperate Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus