Acer tataricum

''Acer tataricum'' is a species of maple native to central and southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from Austria east to southwestern Russia and the Caucasus, and south to Turkey. The species is named after the Tatar peoples of southern Russia; the tree's name is similarly commonly also spelled "Tartar" in English.


It is a deciduous spreading shrub or small tree growing to 4–12 metres tall, with a short trunk up to 20–50 centimetres diameter and slender branches. The bark is thin, pale brown, and smooth at first but becoming shallowly fissured on old plants. The leaves are opposite and simple, broadly ovate, 4.5–10 centimetres long and 3–7 centimetres broad, unlobed or with three or five shallow lobes, and matte green above; the leaf margin is coarsely and irregularly toothed; the leaf petiole is slender, often pink-tinged, 2–5 centimetres long. The flowers are whitish-green, 5–8 millimetres diameter, produced in spreading panicles in spring as the leaves open. The fruit is a paired reddish samara, 10–12 millimetres long with a 2–3 centimetres wing, maturing in late summer to early autumn.

It is related to ''Acer ginnala'' from northeastern Asia; this is treated as a subspecies of Tatar Maple by some botanists. They differ conspicuously in the glossy, deeply lobed leaves of ''A. ginnala'', compared to the matte, unlobed or only shallowly lobed leaves of ''A. tataricum''.