From China, not well known. There appears to be no obvious or exceptional qualities for the home garden.

Small tree 8-12 m. tall, young shoots green to purplish. Autumn color yellow to brownish. Named after English botanist Daniel Oliver (1830-1916)

I thought the leaf shape was kinda cool (like a Liquidambar) and it was showing some red fall color as you can barely see in the photo. Being in Z5 I am always looking for hardy ornamental maples.

Actually, fall color can be from bright orange to red. I would consider it exceptional in a good year. The leaf shape is interesting and much more often like this:

http://www.esveld.nl/htmldia/a/acoliv.htm

Although I am not very familiar with this tree, I am not sure the tree you picture is correct, unless the leaves are very juvenile, and that does not appear to be the case.

Also use this link to see Acer oliverianum ssp. formosanum:

http://www.esveld.nl/htmldia/a/acofor.htm

Here you see some of the fall color that appears on both forms. I happen to prefer Acer oliverianum over the subspecies selection. What can often happen in aboretums is that the planting get too much shade. If this plant has adequate sun, I would expect good fall color as with all maples. Good sun, an early cold snap, low fertility, and just a bit of drought. Too bad it is so hard to bring all of that together in the fall.

MJH

The arboretum lists this individual tree as being grown from seed from Hillier & Sons Nursery, so maybe there is just some variability in the species. It was basically being grown in the understory of mature oaks if I remember correctly. How about cold hardiness and sources? The arboretum lists it as Z6, so maybe they are just pushing its limits. Anyways if it gets 8-12 meters tall, probably too big for my spots.

Most of the species plants should come pretty true from seed. I don't think we should see a great deal of variability thereby I still question the tree at Morton, but again I have only recently been introduced to this tree and trees in arboretums can be a bit tricky. Even in the UBC gallery (link below) there is some leaf shape variability--so I suppose one would want to see the tree before buying.

The link below also provides photos of the tree, one grown in Europe, likely France, another from California and one from Seattle. We see pretty consitent leaf shape but a variance in leaf coloration likely attibuted to locale and growing conditions, but possibly seedling characteristics.

Nice tree whether you decide to grow it or not.

MJH

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9951

Awesome tree. Fast grower, heat tolerant, wind tolerant, and beautiful fall colors for us in zone 10b. Our tree was less than an inch in diameter and it survived a wind storm, bending and flexing almost 45 degrees.

The very few maples to provide fall colors and survive the summer heat here in Southern California.

Tree received zero shade, and is thriving