Linearilobum ID, and advice

Discussion in 'Maples' started by AlainK, Oct 26, 2014.

  1. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Hello,

    At out bonsaï club, a friend brought some "raw material", that is a tree that has already been roughly pruned but is in its early stage as a bonsai, and even a pre-bonsai.

    I didn't have a camera, but the tree is about 70 cm tall (about 2 feet and and a couple of toes) and doesn't seem to be grafted. The bark is dark green, only turning light grey at the bottom of the trunk, which is about 2.5 cm (one inch) in diameter at the base.

    1/ Since he was pruning it again, I took some branches: he doesn't remember the name of this cultivar, but it should be one from the "linearilobum" family I guess. any suggestions?

    2/ the "linearilobum" characteristics tend to disappear gradually, giving place to leaves that look like the "Amoenum" shape instead. Is that common for such a cultivar to revert to a more common leaf shape? And apart from grafting the branches that stil look "linearilobum", is there another way to prevent it from reverting to a more common form?
     

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  2. DougieMapleSeed

    DougieMapleSeed Active Member

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    In my experience, on vigorously growing young wood most Acer p. linearlobum cultivars have a tendency to show atypical leaves, which look more palmate or amoenum than linearlobum. This is especially true for the growth from the 2nd or 3rd flushes in a season, as well as atypical growth caused by over-fertilization. The buds on this same atypical section of growth the next season will likely have the linearlobum leaves again; so don't worry that your tree has somehow "reverted" back to the wild type appearance of the species, because genetically it has not changed at all. So in short, yes they do this and no it's nothing to worry about. Regarding your question on grafting the branches to prevent it from reverting, as i just explained that reversion is not a concern, there is no reason to do this. What you are calling reversion is simply the nature of the tree. There is no need to graft the linearlobum branches to a new rootstock, and in fact if you were to take either of the types of branches you would end up with the same result. Grafting only the branches with the typical linearlobum leaf shape will not create a tree that doesn't show the palmate or amoenum leaves on young growth. For the sake of being thorough, there are in fact some cases where selection of the right branch to graft could matter, such as variegated trees which are actually chimeras, or a grafted tree with the rootstock suckering, or by selecting an apical branch vs. a lateral branch, or a witches' broom; however, for most cultivars any branch will have the same genetic makeup and give you the same result in the long run.

    Unfortunately, identification is going to be impossible merely from your description and pictures; there are many cultivars and seedlings that fit this description. Since you mentioned that this is from a pre-bonsai specimen with no visible graft union, chances are that this is a seedling or a cutting propagated cultivar. If it is indeed a seedling, than it is not genetically identical to any cultivar and cannot be named as such. If you can find out a little more about the source of the tree, perhaps you could find out whether it was cutting propagated and the propagator could tell you the cultivar name. For clarification for those that do not know, the name "Acer palmatum linearlobum" really only refers to a broad category of cultivars and seedilngs based on leaf shape and is not one unique cultivar in and of itself.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2014
  3. AlainK

    AlainK Renowned Contributor Forums Moderator Maple Society 10 Years

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    Thank you very much for your very complete response Doug.
     
  4. DougieMapleSeed

    DougieMapleSeed Active Member

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