Our range of Field Maple bare root plants (Acer campestre)

We have Field Maple bare root hedging plants in several specifications and heights.  The 1+0 1 year old specification plants are seedlings (often called whips) which were grown from seed sown in the spring and are sold during the following November to April months ie they are 1 year old.  We have Field Maple whips in several heights.

We also have Field Maple transplants (1+1, 2 year old plants) which began as a one year old whip (grown from seed in one growing season) and are then planted back out for one more growing season in a different area of our fields at lower density to give each plant more space, nutrients and water.  If you are planting under a Countryside Stewardship grant, you need to use the 1+1 plants.

All these plants are grown by us in Herefordshire.  Generally we have two batches of seed - one will be UK seed and one will be high quality imported, so if it is particularly important to you to have UK provenance seed, please give us a call.

Field maple (Acer campestre) Summary

As a hedging plant, Field maple is tough, withstands hard pruning or hedge laying (though its shoots are somewhat brittle and tough), and is often included as a constituent part of a mixed farm hedgerow.  Its leaves go bright yellow in autumn.

As a tree, it will grow up to 20m and has a fairly uniform rounded crown and either a clear stem or multi stem.  It is the only native Maple tree.  It has the hardest timber of any European maple, a lovely red colour, traditionally used in wood-turning and furniture making.

It’s a good choice for areas that suffer from pollution and will cope with any soil and situation.  It's very hardy.

Soil and Situation

Whilst performing best on well drained, rich soil Field Maple will cope with most soils and situations even dry, sandy soil, areas susceptible to high pollution levels and areas with compacted soil.  They grow well in full sun or partial shade.

Leaves, bark, flowers and fruit

The striking and most notable aspect of Field maple to mention in this section is the bright yellow colour that the leaves turn in autumn (often having had a red flush before turning yellow).  Driving along country lanes in September, it’s easy to see how many hedgerows include this species by the bands of yellow foliage every few metres.  The leaves are small, dark green until autumn, quite shiny and have 5 unequal sized toothed lobes and rounded edges held on a reddish stalk.  Leaves are eaten by many types of moths and by browsing animals.

Flowers are small, lime green and held in clusters.  They are attractive to pollinators (both for nectar and pollen) and after being pollinated, develop into winged fruits (called "keys") which are a food source for small mammals.   The helicopers (containing the seed) allow the seed to land away from the parent tree whose shade is undesirable for germination and where the access to water and nutrients will be limited by the parent tree.

The bark is sandy brown coloured with flaky longitudinal fissures that have a reddish edge when the bark is young.

Eventual height and growth rate

Growth rate is average (about 40cm pa).  As a hedging plant, Field maple is good at 1m to 3m and as a tree, it will grow to 10m or more (more usually 5m - 10m) and it can live for 350 years.

Sapindaceae family.