The natural range of the grape-leaf maple is entirely located in Japan and covers the southern part of Hokkaido and the islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. This tree grows in deciduous deciduous forests, in Honshu it rises in the mountains to heights of 200 to 1300 meters. The grape-leaved maple is a small tree or shrub, reaching a height of 10 m, in exceptional cases up to 20 m. The crown of the tree is round and wide, with dense horizontal branches. Young shoots are olive green, reddish on the sunny side, pubescent at first, later glabrous. Over time, the bark on the branches becomes gray and remains smooth for a long time, over the years it coarsens both on the branches and on the trunk.
The leaves resemble those of some species of the genus Maiden Grape (Parthenocissus). They are tripartite with clearly defined leaves. The leaves are elongated ovoid in shape, pointed, roughly and sharply serrated along the edges, pubescent, light green and glabrous above. The middle leaflet reaches a length of 5 to 10 cm and has a petiole 1 to 2 cm long, the lateral leaflets are somewhat smaller. This tree is dioecious. Flowers appear only after the leaves have opened. They are small, yellow-green, collected in 20-50 flowers in erect or hanging downy clusters 5-10 cm long. Individual flowers have 4 sepals and 4 petals. Male flowers have 4, occasionally 5 stamens, gynoecium is completely absent. Likewise, female flowers do not have any stamen rudiments. The fruit is a paired lionfish with light red wings located at acute angles to each other, the tips of which are strongly curved inward. The length of the winglet, together with the seed, is from 2.5 to 3 cm.
