Acer Orientalia Minorient - Maple

Acer Orientalia 'Minorient' is a recently obtained hybrid maple, selected by Minier Nurseries for its small growth and beautiful spring and autumn colours. This small deciduous tree displays beautiful, shiny, palmate leaves that successively turn from yellow-orange, margined with red in the spring, to summer green, before turning to golden bronze marked with red in the autumn. It is particularly well suited to small gardens, whether placed in isolation or associated with other small trees or bushes offering different colours or habits.

Acer Orientalia Minorient is a result of cross-breeding between Acer campestre, the field maple, a species native to Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, and Acer cappadocium, the Cappadocian or Colchis maple, native to the Caucasus and Asia Minor, specifically Turkey and Iran. Extremely hardy and of average growth, it will reach an average height of 4 m (13 ft 1 in) and form a crown 3 m (9 ft 10 in) wide in our gardens. Its habit is rather round and dense. The deciduous foliage of this maple is composed of small leaves, 5 to 12 cm (2 to 4.7 in) long, with 3 to 5 lobes. In the spring, their colour is yellow-orange margined with red. In the summer, from June to September, they take on a green hue, leaning towards yellow. Autumn and the first frosts colour the foliage golden yellow, bronze and copper red. The insignificant flowering takes place in the spring, at the same time as the leaves unfold. The small flowers are greenish, villous, grouped in erect, sparse corymbs. The flowering is followed by the formation of often reddish, winged fruits, the samaras. Note that this maple tolerates the presence of limestone in the soil very well, but prefers deep and moist soils.

Acer Orientalia 'Minorient' is not only a very ornamental small tree from spring to autumn, but it is also easy to grow in ordinary soil, away from the burning sun that would damage its foliage. It will be highlighted in the centre of a shrub bed with purple or evergreen foliage, or even those flowering in the summer, which will provide it with the colour it lacks a bit in summer and winter. It can also be associated, in a country hedge, with deciduous spindle trees, Carpinus Orange Retz, Cotinus, hawthorns, ornamental apple trees or its cousins, the Montpellier maple and the field maple. Plant small shade perennials (lamium, Epimedium, Geranium macrorrhizum, Ophiopogon planiscapus Niger) at its foot to highlight its flamboyant colours in the spring and autumn.