The Tatar Maple – The Underestimated Survivor
by Gyula Kovacs
The polytypic Tatar maple has several subspecies that are separated geographically. The autonym taxon Acer tataricum subsp. tataricum also occurs in Central Europe, Austria (Xu et. al, 2008, Fischer et al., 2008, Gilli et al., 2019). Very rare and endangered in Austria, it occurs in Burgenland and Lower Austria (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, 2004). Herbarium specimens are known from Zwerndorf and Marchegg (Metlesics 1957, 1963) and from botanical surveys near Leitha (Willner, 2014). The subspecies Amur maple (Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala), which foliage turns strongly red in autumn, is often planted in parks and gardens. It is distributed in Asia (Xu et. al, 2008), and compared to the autonym its leaves are dissected, typically 3- or 5-lobbed.
Tatar maple occurs naturally in open steppe oak forests (coenotaxon: Aceri tatarico – Quercetum pubescenti-roboris, Natura 2000 code: 91I0 Euro-Siberian steppic woods with Quercus spp.), mostly on loess soils (Horváth et al., 2011). Low or medium growth stands, mosaic with grasses and shrubs. The shrub and ground layer of this forest community are rich. Their typical appearance is in the plain, hilly and foothill regions. They may have formed a continuous transition towards hill and mountain forests. The nearest such forests are in neighbouring Hungary, unfortunately only very small fragments that are under nature protection. The only contiguous stand of it is only 100 ha, although according to expert estimates it could be even 9% of the potential natural forest area of Hungary.
In this relatively open forest community, the upper canopy is only 12-15 m high, where four oak species (Sessile oak - Quercus petraea, Turkey Oak - Q. cerris, Common oak - Q. robur, Pubescent oak - Q. pubescens) occur mixed. Tatar maple occurs with Field maple (Acer campestre) and Field elm (Ulmus minor) in the lower canopy (8-10 m) (Terra Alapítvány, 2011).
Although Tatar maple is a drought-tolerant tree species, it also appears in floodplain forests.
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