Acer palmatum 'RED PYGMY' Japanese maple

Acer

Acer palmatum originates from Japan, parts of Korea and China, where it grows in foothill and mountain forests, along woodland edges and in moist, humus‑rich ravines. It is a tree that has fascinated people for millennia, and it was described as a distinct species by the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828) in 1784, based on plants he encountered during his journey to Japan in 1775–1776 and later treated in his Flora Japonica. Japanese maples reached European gardens in the early 19th century, with documented cultivation in Britain around 1820, from where they gradually spread to other parts of Europe. By the second half of the 19th century they were already present in North American collections and had become valued elements of botanical gardens and private arboreta across the temperate zone. Beyond their ornamental appeal, they also have several practical uses: they are among the most important species for bonsai, form a fundamental component of traditional Japanese garden design, their fine and workable wood is used for small carved objects, and their leaves have served as a source of natural pigments for colouring paper and textiles.

In Japanese culture, Acer palmatum holds an exceptional position that extends far beyond botany. The traditional names kaede 楓 (“frog’s fingers”) and momiji 紅葉 (“children’s hands”) refer to the shape of the leaves and to the gentle, almost intimate closeness with which the Japanese perceive these trees. Their autumn colours have become a cultural phenomenon in their own right, known as momijigari (紅葉狩り), the “search for red leaves”, when people travel to temple gardens, mountains and parks to admire the finest displays. It is a celebration held in similar esteem to the spring hanami (花見), devoted to flowering cherries. Japanese maples appear throughout literature – in the Man’yōshū, the oldest surviving anthology of Japanese poetry from the 8th century, and in Chinese poetry, where they were praised by writers such as Wang Wei (699–759). For centuries they have been a constant motif in painting, woodblock prints, textiles and porcelain. In garden design they symbolise beauty, elegance, tranquillity and changeability – qualities that have become part of the aesthetic code of the entire East Asian cultural sphere. They also enter cultural practice in concrete ways: their leaves are used in ikebana and seasonal decorations, appear in the tea ceremony as an emblem of autumn, and in the Minoo region near Osaka they are prepared as the regional speciality momiji no tenpura (もみじの天ぷら), a sweet delicacy made from salted and deep‑fried maple leaves.

The modern era of Japanese maples is shaped by several key figures and institutions that define their breeding and scholarly documentation. In the Western world, a pivotal role was played by the American dendrologist J. D. Vertrees (1920–1993), author of the first comprehensive monograph Japanese Maples, followed by the British specialist Peter Gregory, long‑time curator of the collection at Westonbirt Arboretum. In Europe, one of the most important centres is the Dutch arboretum and nursery Esveld, founded in 1865 and run by the van Gelderen family; in Japan, traditional nurseries such as Tsukasa Maple and Kobayashi Momiji‑en preserve old regional clones and introduce new cultivars. Among the world’s leading collections are Westonbirt Arboretum in the United Kingdom, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University (est. 1872), which has long studied the genus Acer, and the Portland Japanese Garden, where Japanese maples have become an iconic feature and the subject of expert care. In Japan, key institutions include the Kyoto Botanical Garden (est. 1924) and the Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Tokyo (est. 1684), both of which maintain the genetic diversity of original forms.