Acer x conspicuum

Hybrid snakebark maple is in the soapberry or Sapindaceae family and is a fast growing, medium-sized tree, reaching up to 8 m tall. It is in the snakebark group of maples identified by: Snakeskin-like bark; buds on stocks, 1 pair of scales; flowers (and double samaras) on pendulous racemes.

• It is a fairly slender, vertical tree with a fan-shaped crown; sometimes has one trunk but frequently also has multiple trunks. ‘Silver Vein’ is a splendid, solitary tree. The attractive bark features well in either gardens or parks.
• The glossy, deciduous green leaves are simple, opposite, 3-lobed, but the outer lobes are relatively small, reduced more or less to leaf points in some leaves. The leaf turns dark yellow in autumn.
• Female flowers are yellow-green in April, on arching to pendulous racemes, developing into strings of double samaras connected on long stocks; the samaras are small and often numerous.
• Winter twigs and buds are reddish.
• The bark is among the most conspicuously marked of all the snake bark maples, silver-grey stripes decorating the blue-grey bark.