is a species of maple native to southern Greece and southern Turkey.
Cretan maple (Asfendamos), Dikti Mountains, Crete
Acer sempervirens is an evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub or small tree, one of the very few evergreen species in the genus. It grows to 10 metres (33 ft) tall with a trunk up to 50 centimetres (20 in) in diameter. The bark is dark grey, smooth in young trees, becoming scaly and shallowly fissured in mature trees. The shoots are green at first, becoming dull brown in the second year. The leaves are opposite, hard and leathery in texture, 1–4 centimetres (0.39–1.57 in) long and 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) across, glossy dark green with a yellow 1 centimetre (0.39 in) petiole, variably unlobed or three-lobed (often on the same shoot); the lobes have an entire (toothless) margin. The flowers are yellow-green, produced in small pendulous corymbs. The fruit is a double samara with two rounded, winged seeds, the wings 1.5–3 centimetres (0.59–1.18 in) long, spread at an acute angle
Cretan maple is found mainly in Greece in the region around the Aegean Sea. On the mainland, it is found only in the southern and central regions of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. On the islands of the Aegean Sea, its range extends from Samothrace in the north through the Northern Sporades, Euboea, Chios and the Cyclades to Crete [4]. In Asia Minor, it is found only occasionally in the mountains on the Aegean coast. Along the southern coast of Turkey, the area of ​​distribution reaches Antalya.In Crete, this maple is found in mountain forests on chalk cliffs at an altitude of 800 to 1500 meters above sea level. In humid or shaded places, for example, in gorges, along streams, on the northern slopes, and also on small islands in general, this species grows much lower. In the north of its range, it never goes above 900 meters above sea level.
