Appearance
''Acer sempervirens'' is an evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub or small tree, one of the very few evergreen species in the genus. It grows to 10 metres tall with a trunk up to 50 centimetres in diameter.The bark is dark grey, smooth in young trees, becoming scaly and shallowly fissured in mature trees. The shoots are green at first, becoming dull brown in the second year. The leaves are opposite, hard and leathery in texture, 1–4 centimetres long and 1–3 centimetres across, glossy dark green with a yellow 1 centimetre petiole, variably unlobed or three-lobed; the lobes have an entire margin.
The flowers are yellow-green, produced in small pendulous corymbs. The fruit is a double samara with two rounded, winged seeds, the wings 1.5–3 centimetres long, spread at an acute angle.
Habitat
It is one of the most drought- and heat-tolerant species in the genus, occurring on dry, sunny hillsides at moderate elevations.
Uses
Cretan maple is occasionally grown as an ornamental tree in western Europe; it was introduced to Britain in 1752.References:
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