Japanese maple

[maroun.c]

Sorry basic question, but not getting the difference, are all acer palmatum and all cultivars basically Japanese maple or is it only a "pure" breed that's called Japanese maple? How do they differ and do techniques for pinching and energy balancing of Japanese maple work for all acer maple and trident maples or does each cultivar require different technique? how do u handle acer palmatums and trident maples if u don't have a clear ID?
Thanks for any info

 

[Srt8madness]

Acer palmatum = japanese maple

Trident leaf looks totally different than japanese maple. Trident has 3 lobes, JM 5,7,or 9.

 

[19Mateo83]

What he said

 

[caffeinated]

all Acer palmatum cultivars are Japanese maples too. Any Acer that isn't a genetic clone of a cultivar is a generic / standard Acer palmatum or Japanese maple. There isn't really a "pure" Acer palmatum as any seedling is a combination of the DNA of two different trees. The generics are sometimes referred to as green Japanese maple. Also know in Japan as momiji, just to make it more fun.

Some cultivars require knowledge about their specific growth habits to work on them effectively. ( shishigashira vs arakawa for example) while some techniques can more or less carry through to all of them. It's all part of what makes bonsai so challenging.

 

[SeanS]

Think of it this way; all dog breeds (cultivars) are dogs.

All JM cultivars are Japanese maples, acer palmatum.

Trident maples are cats. They’re a completely different plant to Japanese maples (although they’re both acers)

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for all the info. Indeed aware of the differences between trident and acer palmatum the mention of trident was only to ask of techniques for acer palmatum work for trident as well or of reaction of the tree is overall different.

 

[leatherback]

Trident maples are cats.

or, more accurately in the parallel you draw; a wolf Canis lupus (and dog Canis familiaris)

 

[SeanS]

or, more accurately in the parallel you draw; a wolf Canis lupus (and dog Canis familiaris)

Ahh makes sense

I’m a cat person anyway

 

[Shibui]

There are differences in management between trident and JM.
Tridents are much easier to manage as they don't seem to produce bunches of new shoots after pruning.
Need to be much more careful to reduce clusters of shoots in JM to reduce chances of localised thickening but anything that works for JM should also work for tridents.
Tridents respond much better to real hard pruning and trunk chops.

There are so many different JM cultivars with such a huge range of growth habits that some do require management.
Many of the dwarf growing types grow masses of shorter shoots close together and branch often so they need to be thinned out more than trimming longer shoots.
Prune weeping types with regard to the tendency for shoots to grow downward instead of up.
Many of the strong growing, larger varieties have big leaves and long internodes so it can be difficult to maintain smaller sized bonsai with those.

If in doubt, trim as normal and watch the response. You can't harm any JM by trimming but the regrowth will give clues as how to manage the tree in future.