Trident foliage variation.

[Shibui]

Put this trident group together nearly 40 years ago. The trees were all bare seedlings at the time. When they came into leaf 2 of them showed contrasting spring leaf colour and really looked out of place.
After a couple of years I removed the 2 I thought were the odd ones but obviously got one wrong so that one is still in there all these years later.



The different colour only lasts a few weeks. Both types turn to a similar green for the remainder of the growing season so I can't be bothered taking it out now.

 

[SeanS]

At least the leaf shape and size seem to be similar if not almost exactly the same. Do you notice any difference in growth patter man in terms of internode length or ability to ramify?

 

[Shibui]

That particular tree does not show any other variation. For all intents and purposes it's the same except for the leaf colour.
I did have a couple of trees with similar leaf colour that readily developed swollen trunk base. That was a great attribute for bonsai and I started to propagate it but that one ramified very poorly and had long internodes. In 15 years the trees only had a little secondary ramification, despite all the usual efforts to develop branching. In the end I gave up on it and went back to the standard red spring leaf types for bonsai.

 

[Michael P]

In my three tree group, one has distinctly different foliage color from the other two for a few weeks in the spring and again in the fall. During the rest of the growing season all are the same color. I like it--the group has a very natural appearance of variability in those seasons.