中华重齿枫 zhong hua chong chi feng

Branchlets glabrous. Petioles of young leaves pubescent, becoming glabrous, 4-5 cm; leaf blade orbicular, 6.5-10 cm wide, palmately 7- or 9-lobed; lobe margin sharply and doubly serrate. Flowers purplish. Fl. May, fr. Sep.

● Deciduous forests; 200-1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guizhou, S Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Zhejiang.

The taxonomic status of Acer ceriferum and A. duplicatoserratum is subject to debate. The only difference between A. duplicatoserratum var. duplicatoserratum, from Taiwan, and A. duplicatoserratum var. chinense, from mainland China, is the degree of pubescence. On the other hand, only one collection of A. ceriferum, a type from W Hubei, which is very pubescent along the veins and petioles including the twigs, was available for study prior to the current work. Collections of A. duplicatoserratum var. chinense from locations near Hubei and many collections, including A. linganense, from E China cannot be easily identified. One of us (Chang) considers that A. duplicatoserratum var. duplicatoserratum should be placed in the synonymy of A. ceriferum, although geographic separation of these two taxa is evident. Moreover, mainland Chinese individuals of A. duplicatoserratum var. chinense resemble A. linganense, which should therefore be made synonymous. In summary, A. ceriferum, which is a pubescent taxon, is distributed in Hubei and Taiwan; and a glabrescent taxon, for which a new combination would be required ("A. ceriferum var. chinense"), is distributed in E China.