Vine Maples as Foliage Trees for Rubies & Bees
Want to add shade and color to your landscape while helping native-pollinators?
Consider vine maple!
Vine maple (Acer circinatum) decorates mountain streams with splashes of glowing red and orange in the fall. This shrubby maple’s palmate, deeply divided leaves, borne in tiered branches, strongly resemble those of Japanese maple. More than its traditional landscape counterpart, vine maple attracts a variety of pollinators, resists pest, and controls erosion.
Most landscaping needs can be fulfilled by native plants instead of non-native ornamental species!
Our Subbing Native Plants into my Landscape blog series highlights ecosystem services provided by plants native to the Pacific Northwest and encourages replacing traditional landscaping species with natives.
Foliage Trees can be Pollinator Gems
What is a Foliage Tree?
A foliage tree is one prized for the beauty of their leaves. This can be a matter of color, texture, or shape. Vine maple (Acer circinatum) brings all three and supports pollinators.
We promote bringing as many ecosystem services as possible to your landscape. By installing vine maple, your foliage tree can be stunning year round while providing habitat for butterflies, bees, and other critters.
The Traditional Ornamental Selection: Japanese maple
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) is a common landscape choice in our Pacific Northwest region. They come in dozens of varieties, offering a diversity of shapes and colors. Though Japanese maples are beautiful, there are stunning alternatives native to our Pacific Northwest that are more pest resistant and helpful to our pollinator neighbors.
Japanese maple is native to Japan and Korea. Japanese maple was brought to England as an ornamental landscape plant, then came to the West Coast of the States in the mid-1850s. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, Japanese maple is classified as an invasive plant. In our Pacific Northwest it is known to spread aggressively by seed.
As an ornamental plant, Japanese maples are more susceptible to pests and disease than the hardy plants that evolved with the surrounding ecosystem. Common issues that affect Japanese maple include aphids, frost damage, and leaf scorch.
Bees are attracted to the Japanese maple, but vine maple is shown to host a larger diversity of pollinators, offering food, shelter, and nesting sites. You can read on about pollinator relationships with vine maple below.
What if the foliage tree was doing more than standing there and looking pretty?
For a Foliage Tree, Instead of Japanese Maple, try a Vine Maple!
Vine maple
Vine maples (Acer circinatum) form jungles in the forest understory, but placed in the landscape they may grow as small trees, particularly in the sun, or as tall, multi-branched shrubs. Somewhat taller than it’s Japanese cousin (Acer palmatum), vine maple typically attains a height of about 15-20′.
Vine maple grows rapidly in moist shade, adapts to a wide range of conditions, and tolerates full sun except in hot, dry locations. The greenish bark and complex branching pattern offer visual interest even in winter.
Distribution
Vine maples are native to the Pacific Northwest and are mainly found on the west side of the Cascade Crest and extend to the coastline. The northern extent of their range reaches up into Alaska. They can be found as far south as northern California.
Vine Maple vs. Bigleaf Maple
Vine maple and bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) are both native to the Pacific Northwest and share a genus, but they are very different beings. Vine maple is significantly smaller, has a shrub-like growth habit, prefers shade over sun, and is more vibrant in the autumn.
Vine maple reaches about 20' tall whereas bigleaf maple soars over 100'. They typically have multiple, relatively thin stems as opposed to the often singular, thick trunk of bigleaf maple. Vine maple requires at least part shade to thrive and bigleaf maple is a sun-lover that will grow through the understory quickly. Lastly, vine maple adopts ruby, amber, and golden gem tones in the fall, versus the earthy yellow and brown patchwork of bigleaf maple senescence.
Both of these plants provide excellent ecosystem services such as erosion control and habitat for wildlife neighbors. Whether to select vine or bigleaf maple is a matter of space, sunlight, and aesthetics. You can read more about bigleaf maple in our species descriptions, linked here.
Rubies
Vine maple leaves turn ruby in the autumn, adding fiery torch flashes to a landscape. In the spring and summertime, they glow bright emerald green. Even in the winter vine maple is brilliant, their buds are tiny and sanguine in preparation of the big brilliance to come.
Vine maple leaves are small and many, providing an illusive and feathery textural intrigue. Their leaf shape is serrated and palmate, forming as sharp hands reaching towards the sun whose colors they reflect during the cold seasons.
Alternating gem tones, vine maple has incredible twigs and foliage year-round.
As they evolved within our Pacific Northwest ecosystem, vine maple is more resilient against ailments that affect Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) like frost damage and leaf scorch.
Bees +
Our native vine maple is a top pollinator shrub/tree in our Pacific Northwest region. Countless landscape designers and pollinator advocates advise the use of vine maple in gardens throughout the web (see our sources below).
Personally, as a self-identified ecosystem nerd, every spring I marvel at the number of bees visiting the small vine maple flower clusters; like they are relishing a seasonal delicacy. Mason bees, honey bees, and bumblebees all adore vine maple.
Vine maple interacts with more pollinators than bees. Butterflies and hummingbirds enjoy nectar from flowers. The Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), a native butterfly, lays eggs among the leaves. Birds feast on seeds during the fall and winter seasons. Vine maple is resilient against deer browse, regrowing quickly after a munch.
From our Species Descriptions
For a breakdown of terms used in this plant description, visit our Terms Definition page, here.
Acer circinatum, Vine maple
Exposure: Partial shade to deep shade, full sun if ample soil moisture
Soil moisture: Moist to dry
Salinity tolerance: None
Fire tolerance: Medium
Transplanting success: High
Growth rate: Moderate
Form: Deciduous small tree or large shrub to 20 ft; moderately deep root system
Vine maple is relatively slow to establish, especially in the full sun, but it usually is a survivor. Provide mulch and/or irrigation for best results. Click here for more photographs of this species on the University of Washington Herbarium website.
If you have a foliage tree of Japanese maple or another species not native to our Pacific Northwest ecoregion, consider substituting it for a vine maple. After the switch, you'll enjoy an abundance of ecosystem services and support your environment -- great work!
Sources
Japanese Maple
The Missouri Botanical Garden
www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=275408
North Carolina State University Extension
www.plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/acer-palmatum/
Oregon State University
Vine Maple
Sound Native Plants' Information Sheet archives
Sound Native Plants Species Descriptions
www.soundnativeplants.com/nursery/species-descriptions/trees-and-shrubs/#Acer_circinatum
Sound Native Plants Species Selection Guide
www.soundnativeplants.com/nursery/species-selection-guide/
Xerces Society
www.xerces.org/sites/default/files/publications/22-023_02_NPPBI%E2%80%94MaritimeNW_web.pdf
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ACCI
Oregon Flora
www.oregonflora.org/taxa/garden.php?taxon=2400
Benton Soil and Water Conservation District
Butterflies and Moths of North America
Bigleaf Maple
Sound Native Plants
www.soundnativeplants.com/nursery/species-descriptions/trees-and-shrubs/#Acer_macrophyllum