Amur Versus Trident Maple Trees

Size and Habit

• The Amur maple naturally grows as a dense, rounded large shrub or small tree with low branches that carry foliage down to ground level. Usually gardeners prune away the lowermost branches -- called limbing up -- to create a more traditional tree silhouette with trunk exposed. It matures 15 to 18 feet tall and equally wide. A trident maple develops an oval to round canopy of leafy branches on multiple trunks. When mature, it resembles a V on the bottom with a rounded ball of leaves on the top. It grows 25 to 35 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide.

Hardiness Considerations

• Amur maple tolerates more winter cold than the trident maple. The Amur maple is appropriate to plant in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 8a. It even survives in the drier, alkaline soils of the Northern Great Plains. By contrast, the trident maple is better suited to warmer regions in USDA zones 5 through 9a.

Ornamental Highlights

• The leaves of an Amur maple are among the first to emerge in the cool but warming days of early spring. In mid-spring, tiny white fragrant blossoms appear above the three-lobed, jagged-edged leaves on branch tips. Pollinated flowers produced clusters of red samaras by late summer. In autumn, the leaves turn rich shades of yellow and orange, but climax to a blend of scarlet and burgundy. The bark is smooth and gray. Trident maple leaves are smooth edged with three pointed lobes -- looking like a childish drawing of a tulip. The leaves turn golden in fall and then deepen to rich dark red. Trident maple's bark is coarse and exfoliating with scales and plates. Gray, orange and brown colors appear in the bark layers.

Growing Requirements

• Both maples are tolerant of dry and infertile soils but will grow markedly better in fertile, moist, well-drained soils. Grow Amur maple in full to partial sun settings, but the trident maple can be grown in any array of full sun to partial shade exposure. To prevent leaf edges from browning during periods of drought, irrigate Amur maple; the trident maple leaves do not brown or scorch in this same environment, according to Michael Dirr of the University of Georgia.