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Acer lobelii
Lobel's maple is a rare, medium-sized deciduous tree from southern Italy, grown as an ornamental in northern Europe for its narrow crown. It suits confined spaces and needs cool, moist conditions, typical of temperate maples.
Acer lobelii, known as Lobel's maple or L'Obel's maple, or the Calabrian maple, is a rare species of maple (Acer) in the soapberry family Sapindaceae. It is native to southern Italy. It is named after the Flemish botanist Matthias de l'Obel. The species is closely related to Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and Cappadocian maple (Acer cappadocicum), and has often been treated as a subspecies of either of those, as Acer platanoides subsp. lobelii and Acer cappadocicum subsp. lobelii. More recently, it has been considered to be particularly close to the latter, which has also been confirmed by phylogenetic studies. Thus, A. lobelii most likely represents the westernmost member within the A. cappadocicum complex.
Lobel's maple is grown as an ornamental tree in northern Europe, valued for its narrow crown which makes it suitable for planting in confined spaces. Many of the trees in cultivation are grafted on Acer cappadocicum rootstocks, shown by the numerous root sprouts with Acer cappadocicum foliage.
The horticultural hybrid maple Acer × zoeschense is often cited as having Acer lobelii as one of its parents, though more likely Acer cappadocicum.
The species is rare and endangered in Italy, only occurring scattered in small groups in Italian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forest habitats between 200 and 1750 m altitude in the southern Apennine Mountain chain, particularly in beech forests. It is found in the Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio and Molise provinces, reaching south into Sila National Park, Calabria. Some sources also consider it to be native to the western Balkans, however, this is unconfirmed, and may have its roots in an erroneous attribution.
Field Maple · Kyushu Maple · Cappadocian maple · Vine maple · Père David's maple · Horned maple · Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala · Paperbark maple · Fullmoon Maple · Bigleaf Maple · Montpellier Maple · Manitoba Maple
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acer lobelii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
