© The Dabney Nursery
Plant: Sango Kaku - Japanese Maple
Japanese Maple · Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku'
Size: 5 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Sango kaku, the coral bark Japanese maple, is grown above all for the brilliant red coral bark on its young branches, which intensifies in winter and turns almost fluorescent after the leaves fall. It grows roughly a foot a year to about 15 to 20 feet, and may reach a landscape size of 25 feet tall by 20 feet wide. New leaves are bright clear green with red margins, deeply cut and pale green through summer against bright red stems, then turn vibrant golden yellow with accents of red and orange in fall. Sited where the winter stems can be seen, it gives year round interest as a specimen or accent.
- Part Shade
- Grows to 25 ft tall and 20 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 5-8
- Deciduous foliage
Plant description
Sango kaku, the coral bark Japanese maple, is grown above all for the brilliant red coral bark on its young branches, which intensifies in winter and turns almost fluorescent after the leaves fall. It grows roughly a foot a year to about 15 to 20 feet, and may reach a landscape size of 25 feet tall by 20 feet wide. New leaves are bright clear green with red margins, deeply cut and pale green through summer against bright red stems, then turn vibrant golden yellow with accents of red and orange in fall. Sited where the winter stems can be seen, it gives year round interest as a specimen or accent.
- Flowers
- Small red to purple flowers appear in spring; attractive viewed closely but insignificant from a distance.
- Foliage
- Deeply cut, pale to bright green leaves with attractive red margins, turning vibrant golden yellow with accents of red and orange in fall.
- Fruit
- A schizocarp of two samaras with incurved wings forming an arch, becoming reddish in fall.
- Bark & stems
- Young branches carry brilliant red coral bark that intensifies in winter; the bark on new twigs turns bright, almost fluorescent coral red after the leaves fall.
- Light
- Morning Sun, Dappled/Filtered Light
- Native range
- Japan, China, Korea, eastern Mongolia and southeastern Russia
