Acer circinatum

Acer circinatum
Vine maple leaves and flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Sapindaceae
Genus:	Acer
Species:	A. circinatum
Binomial name
Acer circinatum Pursh 1813
Natural range
Synonyms
Acer macounii Greene Acer modocense Greene Acer virgatum Raf.

Flower with reddish calyx and five short petals

The fruit is borne in pairs. With wings nearly 180 degrees apart, it is initially green, later becoming reddish (shown) to brown.

Acer circinatum (vine maple) is a species of maple native to western North America, from southwest British Columbia to northern California, usually within 300 kilometres (190 mi) of the Pacific Ocean coast, found along the Columbia Gorge and Coastal Forest. It belongs to the Palmatum group of maple trees native to East Asia with its closest relatives being the Acer japonicum (Fullmoon Maple) and Acer pseudosieboldianum (Korean Maple). It can be difficult to distinguish from these species in cultivation. It is the only member of the Palmatum group that resides outside of Asia.

It most commonly grows as a large shrub growing to around 5 to 8 metres (16 to 26 ft) tall, but it will occasionally form a small to medium-sized tree, exceptionally to 18 metres (59 ft) tall. The shoots are slender and hairless. It typically grows in the under story below much taller forest trees, but can sometimes be found in open ground, and occurs at altitudes from sea level up to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).

Autumn foliage of Acer circinatum

The leaves are opposite, and palmately lobed with 7 to 11 lobes, almost circular in outline, 3 to 14 centimetres (1.2 to 5.5 in) long and broad, and thinly hairy on the underside; the lobes are pointed and with coarsely toothed margins. The leaves turn bright yellow to orange-red in fall. The flowers are small, 6 to 9 millimetres (0.24 to 0.35 in) in diameter, with a dark red calyx and five short greenish-yellow petals; they are produced in open corymbs of 4 to 20 together in spring. The fruit is a two-seeded samara, each seed 8 to 10 millimetres (0.31 to 0.39 in) in diameter, with a lateral wing 2 to 4 centimetres (0.79 to 1.57 in) long.

Vine maple trees can bend over easily. Sometimes, this can cause the top of the tree to grow into the ground and send out a new root system, creating a natural arch.

It is occasionally cultivated outside its native range as an ornamental tree, from Juneau, Alaska and Ottawa, Ontario to Huntsville, Alabama, and also in northwestern Europe.