It widespread across much of China as well as Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and eastern Russia.

Acer pictum is a deciduous tree up to 20 meters tall, with gray bark.

[5] Acer pictum is taxonomically complex species, showing morphological variation that corresponds to different geographic regions.

Treatments of this variation have ranged from recognizing entities at the species level, to uniting them all under an undivided A. pictum.

[5][6] Five subspecies are provisionally recognized in the Flora of China.