A small, deciduous, dioecious tree, sometimes a shrub; young shoots downy. Leaves five-lobed, roundish to ovate in main outline, slightly heart-shaped at the base, slender-pointed, sharply, coarsely and unevenly toothed, the niche between the lobes very narrow; 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, almost or quite as wide; dark green and slightly downy when young above, softly downy beneath with conspicuous tufts in the vein-axils; stalk slender, often as long as the blade. Flowers yellowish, produced in April; those of the male tree in short clusters of four to six; those of the female tree on a raceme 2 in. long terminating a twin-leafed twig. Wings of the fruit 3⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. diameter spreading at an angle of about 120°, and, with the nutlet, making the whole fruit 11⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. wide.
Native of S.E. Manchuria; introduced about 1890. It is akin to A. argutum, another unisexual maple, from which its more coarsely toothed leaves, its petals being narrowed to a stalk at the base, and its larger fruits distinguish it.