the genetics of the Caddo sugar maple

10 years ago

I know a few of you have planted either seedling Caddo sugar maples, or one of the cultivars ('John Pair', 'Autumn Splendor', or 'Flashfire').

How have they grown so far for you?

It seems that from what I read, the jury is still out on the proper classification.

Most now call it Acer saccharum var. Caddo. I've also seen it grouped with A. floridanum (barbatum), A. grandidentatum, and even Acer nigrum in the past. The trees' native range seems almost equally distant from all four species' "official" native ranges.

The trees seem to share some characteristics of all of them. The heat tolerance & leaf shape seems to somewhat mimic the A. floridanum, but it's drought tolerance is somewhat reminiscent of A. grandidentatum. The smaller leaves (from pics I've seen posted here) also resemble those two, but a lot of sugar maples from the "main" native range have smaller leaves, like the cultivars 'Legacy' and 'Commemoration', & nobody wants to call them anything but A. saccharum.

For those who have grown one, do they "look" like a 'regular' sugar maple, more or less, or different?

Comments (3)

Embothrium
10 years ago
In horticultural practice a seed-raised cultivar 'Caddo', after Caddo county in Oklahoma.

This post was edited by bboy on Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 3:47
Elektron
10 years ago
My two 'John Pair' haven't been in the ground that long so there really hasn't been any growth this year.

It has been a hot summer as usual in North Texas, and both have had a good amount of leaf scorch. One went as far as to lose its leaves during late summer. It has since had new leaves emerge that look very healthy.

As for the shape, I'd say they resemble A. Saccharum, although smaller. They are probably most reminiscent of A. Grandidentatum or Floridanum.

This is the one that lost its leaves and has regrown them:

This post was edited by Elektron on Thu, Oct 24, 13 at 18:43
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Elektron
10 years ago
Here is the other that retained its leaves, although they are much smaller and scorched due to the heat. It has also slowly begun to turn a yellow-orange for fall, which may be hard to see in the picture: