John writes: “I’m wondering if any of the Maple Leaf Life writers would be able to help me identify a Maple tree in the neighborhood.
I am hoping to plant a couple of trees in my parking strip. The trees that are in front of Fairview Christian School along Northeast 79th Street (between Eighth Avenue Northeast and Roosevelt Way Northeast) are
exactly what I am looking for, but I do not know the name of the specific Japanese Maple.
I’ve emailed the school to see if they know and am waiting for a response. They appear to be a lace leaf style with red and green leaves and red ‘spinner’ seed pods. I’ll include a few pictures.
If you know of someone who is good at identifying trees who could help please feel free to pass my email along to them.
Thanks!
According to this site, your Japanese maple is an Acer palmatum:
http://treesandshrubs.about.com/od/commontrees/p/JapaneseMaple.htm
‘Acer’ is the latin for ‘maple’ (as in, Acer macrophyllum is big leaf maple, Acer circimatum is vine maple, and so on), so taking that single word to a nursery won’t narrow it down any to Japanese maples, though Acer palmatum will. Good luck!
if you take the leaves and sead pods to one of the area nurseries – they can probably tell you the variety. by the way – Acer is the latin name for all maples. Try Sky or Swanson’s for the ID.
If Kevin is right about the tree having the name acer in the latin name then it is a type of japanese maple. There are several species of Japanese maples. It would probably be best to take the pictures and samples of the leaves to Sky Nursery. They have several people that will probably be able to identify the excat tree.
Oh, I guess I can’t paste in a link… search “City of Seattle approved tree species list” and you’ll find it!
I’m no expert, but we live just a block over and received trees from the City of Seattle to plant a few years back, from their approved species list. Ours look something like your photos and I remember they had the word “acer” in the latin name… Check out this list:
you’ll see only three acers that are red, I hope this narrows it down for you.