The full moon maple’s Latin name, Acer japonicum, actually seems more Japanese than the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum. It’s native to Japan, of course.
To confuse things even more, there’s Acer shirasawanum, also called full moon maple, sometimes considered a subspecies of A. japonicum. The ‘Aureum’ variety is an incredibly beautiful tree that’s incredibly difficult to grow in our area (we lost two and gave up).
Our current tree is A. japonicum ‘O-Isame’, and has tolerated life in our garden for years as a shaded understory tree, although it would probably be happier someplace cooler, like Arcata.
Leaf color varies across the tree and with the progression of autumn.
After rain, the wet leaves have even deeper color.
Autumn leaf color varies from pale green through gold to deep red.
The most typical color on our tree is a blend of burgundy and this red. Since climate and soil can affect leaf color, your results may vary. Other varieties of the tree have different dominant colors.
Backlit leaves show more golden orange colors
A bit underexposed to show richer colors in a backlit shot.