I *thought* this seedling was a Japanese maple, since the parent trees
have the look of Japanese maples. Last year, I assumed that the trident leaves
were simply juvenile.....and I expected the "adult" leaves to appear this year.

Well, it looks like my leaves are trident. Also, the other seedlings (in ground)
have trident leaves this year, too.

Are trident maples used as understock?

Enough speculating: here are a bunch of pics - seedling, fall color, bark detail,
new growth this spring, et cetera.

Indorbonsai, have you seen a vine maple?
I did a google search and the leaves look nothing alike.

Josh

Bob

Josh

My friend Jason and I dug up some seedlings from his yard the other evening. I took the opportunity to get some pics of the parent trees, as well. As you can see, there are two trees, with distinct leaves, in the immediate vicinity. They both have limbs that arch over the fence and drop seed. I'm not sure which tree provided the seed from which my particular maple grew.

While digging, I happened to discover a seedling with non-trident leaves...which is really cool, since most of the seedlings don't have unique leaves. Hopefully it will survive. See very last pic (sorry for the poor quality).

Josh

What say you, good folk?

I'd like to cut it down to the red line, but I'd be open to just a mild pruning at the blue line.

Bob....?

Josh

Other issue is the time of year which would again tell us not to do it now, wait till late winter. However, if the tree appears healthy and depending where your at, there is still plenty of time for it to recover this season. It just won't be thinking much about vegetative growth for much longer.

Now that the leader is gone, I'm hoping that the plant will devote some energy to the
lowest branches....but, chances are, it'll re-develop a leader lickety-split, limiting
the amount of bushiness this season. There's always next year...but it would be nice to
have as many leaves on the tree as possible this autumn, since the color is so spectacular.

Updates when I see some new/significant growth.

Josh

Indeed, Red Maple does have trident leaves...
however, the Red Maples in my area seem to have a smooth grey rind (at the 8 inch diameter size). My seedlings are probably too young to determine lasting characteristics, but the bark seems rougher...and more brown in color.

Also, you must remember that my seedling did not appear alone (and so is even less likely to be a fly-in). There are at least ten new seedlings each season, all bearing the Trident characteristics - except for the one "palmatum" looking seedling that I found this year.

As an experiment, my friend Jason and I will be germinating a bunch of seeds next Spring - we're curious to see if we can find any unique seedlings in the batch. Since the seeds are free, and since we're guaranteed vigorous Trident Maple seedlings at the very least, we figure we have nothing to lose.

I already have three of these Maples, and my buddy has given several more away to our friends/family. Jason has one seedling in a pot, and another six or so still in the ground - two of those are second-year seedlings, developing a nice, stout trunk. One of the seedlings he pruned for a low-branching bushy effect.

To all of you who are offering your help, and to all showing interest in this on-going project, thank you!

Josh