The relatively new letter additions such as ah, oh, and
uh to names of Japanese Maples that some of us learned
years ago is not helping such as Ohsakazuki as opposed
to Ōsakazuki, Sa otome or better yet Saho otome as
opposed to Saotome (amoenum) and Sāo otome
(matsumurae), or Garyuh as opposed to Garyū. We
do not fly into Ohsaka do we? We fly into Osaka (Ōsaka).
If the new endings are to be used I think an explanation
is in order from the people that do not know how to use a
macron. I even had a private message recently whereby
the person got some wood from an Arboretum in which
the spelling on the name tag was Shoo Joo. I was asked
what the Maple is and I wrote back it probably was Shōjō.
(If your browser cannot read the macrons then you may
want to download this package below)
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/intl...ackage_ja.html
Shōjō with the macron over the "o" as properly spelled
would be pronounced like Shooow Joooe.
There are at least 4 forms of Ōsakazuki, I have two of
them. One has a light green leaf, one a darker green
leaf with almost a blue cast to the bark color. There
is an akame form with rose-pink highlights on the leaf
margins with a golden cast to the rest of the palmate
leaf as well as beni form, a pink-green as seen in the
early Spring only.
I may have things wrong also but the difference is
I know what an Osakazuki, Saotome and Garyu
look like upon sight like whereas some of you do
not. The problem that will arise is when someone
buys a Sa otome and a Saotome and feel they are
two different Maples. If the Maples were purchased
from two different sources they may indeed look
different from each other for a few years but they
should in time look pretty much the same later.
With the advent of buy it young, graft it young and
sell it soon we invite others to sell these plants as
something they are not and perhaps never will be
and no one wants to say much or do anything about
it.
Jim
