Acer griseum (paperbark maple)

Found in central China in Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Sichuan provinces, between 1,500–2,000 m elevation. Widely cultivated in temperate countries.

Acer griseum at Kew Gardens (Image: Tony Hall)

Acer griseum is a deciduous tree up to 20 m tall, but often smaller in cultivation. The bark is reddish-brown and peels in small sheets. The leaves have three leaflets that are downy underneath with downy stalks. The leaflets have coarse, blunt teeth, measuring 3–8 cm long and 2–5 cm across. The flowers are small, few, and yellow on pendulous downy stalks up to 3 cm. The wind-dispersed samaras (fruits with papery wings) are pale brown, downy, with spreading or nearly erect wings and hard round nutlets.

Illustration of Acer griseum by Christabel King (1980), taken from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Image: Christabel King)

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Acer griseum is listed as Endangered (EN A2c). Although it is found naturally over a large area of central China, the population is now fragmented, small and declining.

Acer griseum is a popular ornamental tree. It has received an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.

In April 1899, Ernest Henry Wilson was sent to China by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to investigate the effect of the charcoal industry on forests, as well as being employed to look for new and interesting plants by James Veitch & Sons’ Nursery, Chelsea. Later, Wilson became known as 'Chinese' Wilson and eventually brought over a thousand garden plants to cultivation in Europe and America, including many well-known species, such as Acer griseum, Davidia involucrata (handkerchief tree) and Lilium regale (regal lily).

Propagation is difficult as this species tends to produce fruits with no viable embryos. It is therefore seldom successfully grown from seed by the amateur.

Fine specimens can be seen in a number of well-established gardens in Europe and southern England, where it does particularly well, growing on most well-drained soils including chalk.

Acer griseum leaves (Image: James Morley)

Acer griseum can be seen in several locations at Kew – in the Bamboo Garden, to the north of the Princess of Wales Conservatory, in the Director’s Garden, and from the Xstrata Treetop Walkway. It can also be found north of the Lily Pond at Wakehurst.

Alcohol-preserved specimens of Acer griseum are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of some of these specimens can be seen online in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Search Kew’s science databases for more information on this species

Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway – Paperbark maple

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)

ARKive – Acer griseum

Flora of China – Acer griseum

Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden