Acer griseum paperbark maple

Exfoliating bark of Acer griseum, with tobira in front, Lou Henry Hoover House. Sairus Patel, 22 Feb 2023

An unforgettable maple with orange-flecked bark that exfoliates even on the smallest twig, the effect greatly magnified on thicker trunks – which are rare around here. The leaves are trifoliate, like those of our native A. negundo, with a few rounded teeth. Their silvery undersides – griseum means gray – are particularly attractive in autumn, when the foliage on their rather sparse crowns turns a handsome scarlet.

Rows of raised planters flanking the patio behind Old Chemistry feature multi-trunked specimens planted in 2016. Nine trees remain in the inner courtyard of Crothers Hall, near the building entrances, planted in 2010. Three older, stunted transplants endure in the lawn to the left of the Mausoleum, near the crape myrtles.

Campus’s handsomest specimen stands at the north corner of Lou Henry Hoover House. The region’s champion in both size and beauty is a multi-trunked tree on the left side of the back porch of Gamble Garden House in Palo Alto, planted in 1990 from a 20-inch box, replacing a straggly pineapple guava reaching for the sun. A few others are scattered around Palo Alto, the largest at 1520 Byron Street.

Acer griseum behind Old Chemistry. Sairus Patel, 6 Jul 2017