Acer caudatum - Candle Maple

Candle Maple is a tree up to 10 m tall, with branchlets stout, with elliptic or oblong warts; winter buds ovoid, outer scales ovate. Leaves are 5-lobed, rarely 7-lobed, carried on leaf-stalk 5-9 cm long, blade below light green, above dark green, 8-12 cm wide, membranous, below yellowish hairy, above hairless except velvet-hairy on veins, base heart-shaped or deeply heart-shaped, lobes ovate or triangular-ovate, margin doubly and sharply incised-sawtoothed, with tapering teeth, tip with a tail or tapering. Flowers are yellowish-green, or reddish, borne at branch-ends, in erect, narrow clusters, carried on flower-cluster-stalks 8-10 cm. Flower-stalks are 5-8 mm, slender. Sepals are 5, ovate-lanceshaped, about 3 mm. Petals are 5, linear-oblong, about 7 mm, hairless. Stamens are 8, hairless. Fruits are yellowish brown; nutlets ovoid-spherical, rarely flat, veined; wing including nutlet 2.5-2.8 cm x 7-9 mm, wings spreading pointedly or erect. Candle Maple is found in alpine forests, at altitudes of 1700-4000 m, Himalaya to N. & E. Central China and N. Myanmar. Flowering: May-June.