Nice specimen! I’ve only seen a small number of this maple, but I was always impressed. The bark is not as nice as A. griseum, but on par with triflorum. Boxerwood in Lexington, VA, had a nice one, but nowhere near the grandeur of the one Clark has posted.

They really grow good out in that climate!

Thanks Klark!

My latest trip to North Carolina for some reason finally made me aware of this entire class of Asian maples. They are really nice, and for people who want a small to medium sized shade tree around here, would be a better choice than the red and silver maples that grow fast into trees that fall apart in every severe storm.

https://jcra.ncsu.edu/horticulture/our-plants/results.php?search=acer

Reviewing that list, now, I wonder how I missed things like Acer oblongum.

I have no doubt the fall color will be worth posting, but maybe things are different in the PNW. Here, practically any maple colors well.

I'm curious about something.

When you see a tree like this in Portland, especially an Asian or Eastern US one, is the assumption that the lawn is getting watered in the summer? Do most people in Portland water their lawns in the dry season? Obviously things like the your native vine maple, would not need supplement watering; although my understanding, possibly incorrect, is that that is more of an understory species, and wouldn't typically be planted as a lawn specimen in an open, full sun exposure like this.

davidrt28 - I often wonder this as well, and I live here. My current theory is that after somehow being kept alive for enough years, by people, many species that are adapted to summer rain, eventually and gradually become able to tolerate summer drought. Camellia is the classic example. Washington & Oregon are lousy with huge, old specimens that don't receive a drop of supplemental irrigation all summer, and they do fine.

This Trident Maple probably gets little to no summer water from the current resident. Every property is different though, some people water, some do not.

Some plants never get there though. Euonymus alatus and Thuja occidentalis often up and die in midsummer if not regularly irrigated.

It's an interesting topic to ponder, especially if you were born and raised in a summer rain climate but now garden in a summer drought climate.

Nice tree. Looks like there's some straight, vertical white tape, rope or poles visible among the branches, especially in the third pic. Perhaps they're suckers.....

There is a hose present in the above pictures, and also some green parking strip lawn grass--unlikely at this date without watering (april-may were dry and june only recently wet for 2 days). But this is not conclusive. I have found that with our recently hotter and drier Portland summers, even a sprinkler running for hours per week in the area is not sufficient to keep some of the trees looking good. Water billing rates are high.