Species
+

Acer circinatum Pursh

Vine maple, t’eḵt’ḵáy̓, vine maple

Climate known 69 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Acer circinatum, or vine maple, is a species of maple native to northwestern North America. Vine maple typically grows as a low-elevation coastal tree in temperate areas of high precipitation such as the west coast of Oregon and northern California, as well as the temperate rainforests of Washington and British Columbia. Vine maples play an important role in conserving the biodiversity of lowland ecosystems by enriching upper soil layers and providing habitat for other organisms.

Text from Wikipedia, “Acer circinatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
Pursh
Native to
British Columbia, Oregon, Washington +1
Wild records
1828 in range· 666 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1812mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 284 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1812 mm a year, wettest November at 284 mm, driest July at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acer circinatum f. fulvum (J.K.Henry) A.E.Murray; Acer circinatum var. fulvum J.K.Henry; Acer macounii Greene; Acer modocense Greene; Acer virgatum Raf.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Acer, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1363 mm of 1812 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 5.6 °C against a yearly mean of 9.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1812 mm a year, wettest November at 284 mm, driest July at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1812 mm a year at the habitat, 1363 mm of it October to March. Wettest month November at 284 mm, driest July at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1162 mm to 2811 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -6.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.1 °C, the absolute minimum -20.0 °C, about 34 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.1 °C in December (across the envelope cells -5.1 °C to 2.7 °C), warmest day 24.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from -0 °C in Dec to 12 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1812 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 953 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 7–43RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 953 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 2–98 / 3–1110 / 6–1313 / 9–1617 / 13–1920 / 17–2324 / 20–2724 / 21–2821 / 18–2515 / 12–189 / 4–116 / 1–8
Night °C0 / -4–31 / -4–32 / -3–44 / -1–67 / 2–910 / 6–1212 / 9–1412 / 9–1410 / 7–127 / 2–93 / -2–5-0 / -5–3
Rain mm260 / 164–411189 / 114–309190 / 117–301138 / 82–215106 / 64–15577 / 44–12328 / 13–6731 / 16–7069 / 39–119159 / 100–279284 / 183–448281 / 174–452
DLI8 / 6–1114 / 12–1721 / 19–2529 / 28–3436 / 34–4039 / 36–4443 / 39–4938 / 35–4329 / 25–3317 / 14–219 / 7–117 / 5–9
RH %65 / 62–6863 / 61–6662 / 60–6561 / 59–6461 / 58–6360 / 57–6358 / 54–6158 / 53–6159 / 54–6262 / 58–6566 / 63–6965 / 62–68

Each figure is the median across the 953 grid cells holding the 1783 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 916:1144 (44.175, -122.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 953 distinct grid cells holding the 1783 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 916:1144 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.00_-122.500, lapse-corrected -407 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 392 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBritish Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California· introduced: Baltic States
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker49.013, -122.456 · in the densest population, 970 records (53% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1828 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 666 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12 km away. 14 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 45 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1828 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Acer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatumAcer circinatum

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Acer circinatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Responses of periphyton and insects to experimental manipulation of riparian buffer width along forest streams
Peter M. Kiffney, John S. Richardson, Jennifer P. Bull (2003) · Journal of Applied Ecology
The Importance of Large-Diameter Trees to Forest Structural Heterogeneity
James A. Lutz, Andrew J. Larson, James A. Freund, Mark E. Swanson (2013) · PLoS ONE
Small mammals in young forests: implications for management for sustainability
Andrew B. Carey, Constance A. Harrington (2001) · Forest Ecology and Management
Leaf size estimation based on leaf length, width and shape
Julian Schrader, Peijian Shi, Dana L. Royer, Daniel J. Peppe (2021) · Annals of Botany
Structural and compositional controls on transpiration in 40- and 450-year-old riparian forests in western Oregon, USA
Georgianne W. Moore, B. J. Bond, Julia Jones, Nathan Phillips (2004) · Tree Physiology
RIPARIAN FOREST STAND DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE QUEETS RIVER IN OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, WASHINGTON
Robert Van Pelt, Thomas C. O’Keefe, Josh J. Latterell, Robert J. Naiman (2006) · Ecological Monographs
Ecology and management of the commercially harvested American matsutake.
David R. Hosford, David Pilz, Randy Molina, Michael P. Amaranthus (1997)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Acer 18 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 51 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.