Maple Tree Hybridising

[Doug "Elvis" Williams]

Hello,
I am curious as to how to create a hybrid maple tree and how long it typically takes to cultivate a hybrid. I believe this is a decades long pursuit, but I'm hoping it's not always.

The two cultivars I have in mind are the laceleaf japanese maple and the paperbark maple. The desired hybrid would have the laceleaf's leaves with the paperbark's bark.

Is this just a fantasy as opposed to a practical idea?

Your feedback would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[sgbotsford]

Maples are a large genus, and it's broken up into a bunch of subgenuses. Most of the time a hybrid will only occur within a subgenus. The one I know of that has some commercial success are the Freeman maples, which are hybrids of red maple and silver maple.

The trees are wind pollenated. Most maples are confused about their sexuality. Some species are strongly dioecious -- male and female flowers on separate plants. Some are monecious with female flowers mostly at the top of the tree and male flowers mostly at the bottom. Some start out male, then become mono or female. Not sure how you will go about controlling which one gets pollenated by what. Most of the maples I'm familiar with don't bloom until they are 12-20 feet tall. Exception: Amur maple and tatarian maple both bloom when they are shrub sized.

Below is a table of Japanese maples. From here: http://web.archive.org/web/20070812014108/http://www.inh.co.jp/~hayasida/Ebunrui1.html

Another good source of maple info: https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/maples.9/