A luminous Japanese maple

I'm not normally a fan of Japanese maples, as they don't really "work for a living" in my normal screen of gardening for nature or growing edibles.  (Our native maples do a better job of feeding insects that feed birds, etc.)  And, I haven't been entranced by Japanese maple stories, although I know they must be interesting.  A recent garden group trip to an iconic local Japanese maple nursery (Mr. Maple) left me impressed with the number of cultivars!

An unusually yellow Japanese maple

Ginkgos have been a feature in all of our gardens because they're living fossils and have a good story, not because of their wildlife attributes (minimal), as have tulips, so maybe we do have exceptions.

However, this beautiful Japanese maple, an unusual yellow color (the iPhone and Photoshop want to see the reddish tinges), caught my attention this morning.   It was luminous in a home garden along one of my favorite neighborhood walking routes.

Impressive.