Dear Kits:

I believe it is the other way around.
Kaede is trident, and palmatum is momiji.

Cheers.

Peter Aradi
Tulsa, Oklahoma

-----Original Message-----
From: Internet Bonsai Club ] On Behalf Of
Kitsune Miko
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 12:19 PM
To:
Subject: [IBC] Mountain maple

If my memory serves me correctly, both my japanese
sensei use "momiji" to mean trident or frog paw and
Kaede to mean palmatium, becasue this described a 5
fingered chiles hand. So again we come to direct
translaton vs meanings of word in use.

Kits
--- Peter wrote:
Curiosity got me and I did a little research
regarding the term
"yamamomiji," a Japanese word meaning "mountain
maple."

As expected the results are confusing and
inconsistent.



1. Kokufuten albums.

List a single category for maples: "momiji."

However, once you look at individual trees it is
different. Momiji is the
largest group in the deciduous section, some trees
are listed simply as
momiji, Acer palmatum, some as momiji, Acer palmatum
"XXXX," where XXXX is a
Japanese variety, AND interestingly enough some
listed as yama momiji, Acer
palmatum v. Matsumurae..



2. Checking several of my Japanese bonsai books, I
found that some list
momiji only, while some separates momiji and yama
momiji.

In one particular book I found the two were listed
separate and every one of
them was identified with an additional cultivar name
written in kanji, the
Chinese characters used in Japan. Every momiji had a
different cultivar
kanji as expected. All yama momiji were identified
with the same cultivar
and the same two kanji. The first kanji in that
combination is yama or
mountain as expected, while the second kanji is a
very rarely used one that
I found in my specialized dictionary. It is
pronounced as seki or shuku and
translated as "kaede, maple tree."



3. My best guess is that the so called Japanese
mountain maple is "Acer
palmatum v. Matsumurae."

To add to the confusion, if you check Vertrees'
"Japanese Maples, second
edition" that I consider as the definitive source,
in his section Acer
Palmetum's taxonomic subdivision the breakdown is
Palmatum, Amoenum, and
Matsumurae, with the last group containing nearly 80
varieties.



Just an aside: Unfortunately I have trouble keeping
any of the Japanese
maples here in Oklahoma as the heat and wind burns
up the leaves. I do have
a trident that is doing well.



Cheers.



Peter Aradi
Tulsa, Oklahoma





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