Acer platanoides Princeton Gold - Norway Maple

Acer platanoides Princeton Gold 'Prigo' is a variety of the Norway Maple with distinctly yellow and bright foliage. The medium-sized tree with fast growth develops an upright and columnar habit in its early years before rounding out with age, with a densely branched crown. In spring, the leaves are golden yellow, lightening to chartreuse in summer. In autumn, the colouration depends on the soil: from banana yellow to dark yellow, with shades of orange and red. The yellow leaves of this variety, a true visual spectacle, withstand full sun perfectly. The undemanding Norway Maple requires a soil deep enough to accommodate its powerful root system.

Native to the Caucasus, widespread in Europe, from Scandinavia to Spain and east to Russia, Acer platanoides is a large deciduous tree with fast growth, often associated with oak, lime, and elm in upland forests. It can live up to 200 years. The cultivar 'Prigo' was discovered and selected by American botanist and breeder William Flemmer III, who, in the early 1980s, collected street tree seeds and grew them in his trial plots in anticipation of a mutation. The breakthrough came around 1983 when a seedling showed extremely yellow foliage that did not suffer from sun scorch, and the plant proved vigorous and healthy enough to be considered a new variety. It has an upright habit and its beautiful oval crown rounds out with age. At maturity, this single-stemmed tree reaches 10 to 15 m in height and 7 to 10 m in spread. Its foliage is deciduous. The leaves are opposite, palmate, 10 to 20 cm long, with 5 to 7 very pointed, toothed lobes. The leaves, carried on long petioles, are smooth and glossy. They appear bright yellow in spring and turn chartreuse in summer. In autumn, the tree can offer two different spectacles: if grown in ordinary (neutral to alkaline) soil, as the green pigment disappears, the leaves reveal an even lighter shade of banana yellow that contrasts perfectly with the brown veins and petioles. If grown in very acidic soil, the leaves take on various shades of gold, amber-orange, and scarlet red. The inconspicuous flowering, in the form of erect corymbs of tiny yellow-green flowers, occurs before bud burst, in March, on subjects aged 15 to 20 years. It is followed, in June, by 3 to 5cm long, winged fruits called samaras. The bark of this tree is brown, almost smooth and marked with numerous shallow longitudinal cracks.

Acer platanoides Princeton Gold 'Prigo' is an easy-to-grow tree. Unlike many light-coloured cultivars, it is not very drought-sensitive.  It is content with ordinary soil, provided it is deep and well-drained, and it dislikes stagnant moisture. It looks spectacular as a standalone specimen in the middle of a large garden or park, for example. It can also be used as a street tree to border large avenues, or as a windbreak planted along the boundaries of a large garden. For contrast, it can be planted in a grove with a variety with purple foliage, such as the 'Crimson King' Norway Maple, purple beech, or 'Forest Pansy' Eastern Redbud, for example.