The Japanese Threadleaf Maple (acer palmatum dissectum) is one of the most beautiful plants ever developed by humans. I never noticed these trees until I was in my early 30s - and then I noticed that they are everywhere, and rightly so.
You can see samples of the leaves above, but from a distance the tree looks like it consists of a beautifully gnarled trunk supporting puffy green or purple or red clouds. Like this:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMamcRzLMceH8ETg36VsC6J4F_GFI736OmIcLIfcleqzhu_hTdZfvKazDxasZkyXdOYffFtwgN_NaEyQ7rot_CrEGCw-x9mt8XmowsIojmUNQs4KlTouRqBPZ2_b1sSLD3_u68kg/s400/Japanese_maple_dissectum_1.jpg)
The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which I hope to visit soon, has a Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden with fantastic examples.
The Japanese really know how to do gardens - the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, which I visited ten years ago, is so beautiful it blew my mind.