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Bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum Nutt.) is indigenous to the southwestern United States. This species is not widely used in managed landscapes but the plant holds promise as a useful ornamental tree. Micropropagation might provide additional sources of selected genotypes for the nursery industry, but tissue culture has not been used successfully to propagate this species. We cultured double-node explants from greenhouse-grown, 2-year old seedlings of bigtooth maples that originated from Utah, Texas and New Mexico. Seedling height ranged from 15-90 cm. The shoot region was divided into three equal zones designated as terminal, intermediate and basal. Explants were selected from each of those zones. Explants were established on Murashige-Skoog (MS), Linsmaier-Skoog (LS), Woody Plant Medium (WPM) and Driver-Kuniyuki (DKW) tissue culture media. Shoot proliferation, area of the plate covered by callus and foliar pigment development (hue as determined by Royal Horticultural Society Color charts) were monitored for 17 weeks. Media affected shoot proliferation (P = 0.0042) but the zone of origin (P = 0.6664) of the explant did not. Callus area showed no significant difference among the four media and three zones (P = 0.2091) and averaged 3.60 centimeters2. After four subcultures, each lasting 30 days, explants on DKW media produced 10 shoots per explant. This media might hold promise for the micropropagation of bigtooth maple. Twenty-nine percent of all explants expressed foliar pigmentation, which ranged from red-purple to orange-red. Whether foliar pigment development in tissue culture correlates with expressed pigmentation in nature warrants further investigation.

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Double-node microshoots of bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum Nutt.) were rooted in vitro on Driver-Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW) tissue culture media containing indole acetic acid (IAA). Microshoots represented six sources from three locations within Texas and New Mexico. Microshoots were placed in Phytatrays II™ containing DKW media with no plant growth regulator (DKW0) to reduce the high cytokinin levels used for shoot proliferation. Microshoots were induced to form roots for 15 days by placing them on DKW media containing IAA at 0.01, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 15 or 20 μmol. Rooting frequency, the number of leaves and callus area were recorded every 30 days for 60 days. Rooting frequency increased up to 29% as IAA concentration increased (P= 0.004). However, as much as 71% of shoots for one of the three Guadalupe Mountain, Texas, sources rooted without auxin treatment after 30 days. The IAA concentration also affected the number of leaves per shoot (P= 0.0228) which averaged seven and callus area (P= <0.0001) which averaged 52 mm2. Average leaf size was 307 mm2. We conclude that IAA induces rooting in microshoots of bigtooth maple after 15 days of root induction. However, one source rooted without auxin treatment. The presence of callus does not interfere with root formation.