 Only reaching about 15 feet (4.6 m) tall in the American midwest, Amur maackia tolerates severe dryness, cold and heavy soils.More interesting than the summer flowers are the unfolding buds in spring which appear silvery and showy like flowers with frost on them.Named for Karlovich Maack (Richard Maack), a 19th-century Siberian explorer who discovered the tree in the Amur River region on the Siberian Chinese border.