Acer cissifolium

Vine-leafed maple or vineleaf maple is in the soapberry or Sapindaceae family and is native to all of Japan, from southern Hokkaido to the islands of Honshū and Shikoku to Kyūshū. It is a small tree, reaching up to 10 m in height, with multiple stems.

• The young shoots are green, often tinged pink, hairy at first with whitish hairs, becoming grey in the second year.
• Leaves are deciduous, trifoliate, with a very slender red petiole up to 10 cm long; the three leaflets are 4–10 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with 1–2 cm petioles, and coarsely serrated margins. They are matte green above, paler and slightly shiny below, and turn pale yellow to pinkish and red in autumn.
• Species is dioecious; flowers are produced in pendulous racemes 10–16 cm long, each flower with four sepals and petals.
• Fruit is a paired samara, hanging in pendulous racemes; the nutlets are 7 mm long, the wings 15–25 mm long, spreading at an acute angle.