Description
Italian Maple (Acer opalus)
Quality: P (In pot)
A rare native deciduous tree offering a true spring experience: even before the leaves emerge, bright yellow flower umbels appear in March – an early and valuable magnet for bees. The rounded, lobed foliage glows in warm yellow and orange in autumn. With a growth height of 8–15 m, it remains manageable and is suitable as a specimen tree, for parks, or for natural gardens.
Climatic Characteristics & Site Conditions:
The Italian Maple is naturally native to warm limestone areas – making it predestined for Southern German locations such as the Swabian Jura, the Franconian Jura, or the Muschelkalk regions on the Upper Rhine. It tolerates heat and drought exceptionally well and meets the demands of increasingly dry summers in the region. It is not suitable for damp lowlands or waterlogged soils.
Advantages: Native and ecologically valuable, drought-tolerant and climate-resilient, early bee forage from March, beautiful autumn foliage, low maintenance, slow and shapely growth.
Disadvantages: Rare in the trade and correspondingly higher priced, not suitable for damp or waterlogged soils, loose crown provides little shade, hardly usable as a hedge or privacy screen.
