This cultivar, originally selected by Giordano Gilardelli, was then introduced into the European and International markets first under the name of 'Acer palmatum FG1' and later and the present one.
Its habit is erect at the beginning and it becomes open later on. It does not grow very tall for a palmatum because of its tendency to open out. Today, thirty years after its first selection there are specimen of 4 metres height at the most.
Its bright red Summer colour does not burn in the hot sun light. It tends to become bronze coloured in very hot and damp sites during the Summer, only to become bright red again in the Autumn. The persistent bright red colour makes it stand out among the other atropurpureum.
The typically palmated leaves have 7 sharp ovate-lanceolate lobes, with finely toothed edges. A 'Fire Glow' produced by the Gilardelli nurseries has long been established in Mr. D.M. Van Gelderen in Boskoop, Holland.