Oh, just for the record, the USDA says the official name is Acer floridanum. It also has a good track record of being resistant to both wind and ice. The national champion is in Georgia and has a height of 100 feet by 64 feet, so it does have some extra potential. You can expect yours to reach a height of 20 to 25 feet with a rounded shape. Start with a good species like the Southern sugar maple, which just happens to also be the rock maple, Caddo maple and Florida maple and hammock maple. Those sugars retained however are converted to colorful anthocyanin pigments, hence the sugar high connotation.Įven with perfect climatic conditions, if we don't have the best species of trees, we are lost from the start. It also reduces the rate of respiration in the leaf, so some sugars are converted to carbon dioxide. This also can weaken the leaf, making it easy for a northern wind to blow it off the tree.Ĭool night temperatures limit the movement of sugar from the leaves. If an abundance of cloudy weather prevents photosynthesis from occurring, leaf color will be mediocre even if temperatures are ideal. ![]() Much of our area experienced this without any freezing temperatures to date.Įven though the chlorophyll content of the leaf declines in the fall, it is still important that photosynthesis take place. ![]() Conditions that favor these colors are sunny days and nighttime temperatures between 45 degrees and freezing. The climate has the biggest effect on the production of anthocyanin pigments that intensify the red and scarlet colors. ![]() In simplistic terms, conditions for great fall color boil down to cool night temperatures and warm, sunny days. Those words cause me to have a rapid heartbeat as I think back to plant physiology classes. When we look at fall color scientifically, words like carotenoids, pigments, chlorophyll, auxin, gibberellins, other growth hormones and enzymes enter into the discussion. A sugar high may not be ideal in children, but our trees certainly rewarded us as that extra sugar got stored in their systems. In fact many of the trees are coming out of a sugar high giving us some great fall color. The first issue is that it is native and the second problem will be what do you tell your nurseryman? Here at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens it has been a tree of mystical color, especially when you add a little Spanish moss. This incredible native tree that deserves to be admired, loved and planted will be a challenge for you to locate. ![]() floridanum, Saccharodendron barbatum, Saccharodendron floridanum. villipes, Acer floridanum, Acer floridanum var. So I give them complete credit for the next few words - the botanical name according to them is Acer barbatum with the synonym(s): Acer barbatum var. One of my favorite Internet reference sights in the world of horticulture and nature comes from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center,. There is a catch to the story.īotanically speaking it is somewhat of a taxonomic nightmare with many scientists turning it into what might resemble a political battle. In other words, many of us grow it and relish in all of its fall glory. This tree is native from Texas to Florida and as far north as Missouri and Illinois. There is gold in those leaves particularly if you grow the tree many call the Southern sugar maple.
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