Acer micranthum

Among the snakebark maples, Acer micranthum ranks with the most delicate, a small, sometimes shrubby tree from the mountains of Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku, where the Japanese know the plant as the Komine maple. The species has no settled English name, and that quiet anonymity suits a tree grown for refinement rather than show. James Harris, in The Gardener's Guide to Growing Maples, calls this "a very elegant maple with attractive autumn tints," and Bluebell Nursery in Britain describes "a rare and sought after species ... a very striking garden plant with a lovely habit and an excellent choice for glorious autumn color," adding that established specimens carry eye-catching bark.

The young stems are smooth and finely striped, the snakebark signature, dulling to grey with age, while dark purple red shoots and buds lend winter a quiet interest of their own. The leaves recall a small-leaved Japanese maple, five lobes deeply toothed and drawn to long points, opening red in spring, settling to green, then passing through yellow and orange to red in autumn. Slender racemes of tiny yellow green flowers appear in early summer and ripen into the paired, winged seeds of the genus.

Reaching twenty to twenty-five feet with slender, arching branches, the Komine maple belongs at a woodland edge, in light shade, or as a fine-textured specimen where the striped bark and airy canopy can be studied at close range. Underplant with ferns, hellebores, and other woodlanders that share a taste for cool, even moisture. A holder of the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, this maple is a connoisseur's tree, more often read than noticed.