Acer platanoides 'Columnare'Norway maple

Acer platanoides ‘Columnare’ is a nineteenth-century French selection that adapts the robustness and scale of the Norway maple to a more upright architecture. The crown starts with a narrow oval outline and becomes progressively more columnar as the branches take on an ascending orientation. It can reach approximately 15 to 20 metres in height and 5 to 8 metres in width, depending on the rootstock, the soil and the growing conditions.

Before or as the leaves begin to emerge, abundant corymbs of small greenish-yellow flowers appear. The flowering lights up the whole crown and is a significant spring resource for bees and other insects. The winged samaras characteristic of the species follow.

The leaves, large and palmate, open in reddish-brown tones and turn dark green during the summer, forming a dense, uniform crown. In autumn they turn golden yellow, accentuating the vertical continuity of the avenue planting.

It grows in sun or partial shade and adapts to different textures and pH values, provided it has a functioning soil without persistent waterlogging. It shows good resistance to cold, wind and urban conditions, including heat, air pollution and periods of lower water availability once established. The final width of the crown should, however, be taken into account when setting the spacing and the distances to façades.

It is particularly suited to avenues, central reservations, car parks, squares and streets that call for a tall tree without the lateral spread of a broad-crowned maple. A mature specimen from Diaplant immediately brings a well-defined trunk, a raised crown and the vertical rhythm needed to structure the space, shortening the long period during which a young tree does not yet provide scale, shade or continuity in the avenue planting.