Montpellier maple
Acer monspessulanum
Family · Sapindaceae · Harmless
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The small tough maple of limestone slopes, its leaf with only three rounded lobes, bluish beneath. It turns red and orange in autumn and is one of the few trees in the Peninsula to do so.
Uplands · Oak woods · Streams and ditches
Also known asFrench maple
How to tell it
Opposite leaves with three round-tipped lobes, small, leathery and bluish beneath. The fruit is the family's signature: two winged seeds joined at the base, spinning as they fall. Grey bark cracked into small plates. A low tree, often twisted.
What it is confused with
Field maple
Acer campestre
Count the leaf lobes: three on Montpellier maple, five on field maple. And the fruit wings spread almost in a straight line on field maple, at a narrower angle on Montpellier maple.
What it is for
The wood is hard and even-grained and was used for turnery and precision parts. It has no food use. Ecologically it is good news: it indicates well-preserved limestone woodland.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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