zedmarcus
Sapling
I have a small young acer butterfly that I bought last year. It's started leafing out, but for some reason one of the leaves is completely different to the others. Any idea why?
Butterfly Maple - odd leaf
- Thread starter zedmarcus
- Start date
I'd guess its just a random mutation. I can see from that same bud next to it, the other leaf is fine. So same aged growth is normal. Not something I would fixate over.
I have one of these varieties in my garden, planted in the ground. Need to move it this weekend in fact, I'm ground growing it to turn it in to Bonsai in the future.
Forsoothe!
Imperial Masterpiece
Yes, it's a chimera and you could remove it down beyond a leaf you like, clip it as a cutting, or air layer it later.
Pitoon
Imperial Masterpiece
I would tag that branch and note the location of that bud. Once the flush finishes and hardens off, cut the branch to that bud (give some space for die back on the branch) to activate that bud. If it flushes out with the same odd leaves let it grow out. Once that hardens take some cuttings (do not remove the odd producing branch from the tree) root those and congratulate yourself on a new cultivar.....if it's reproducible.
zedmarcus
Sapling
So coming back to this one after a couple of years.
I ended up leaving this odd branch with different leaves and didn't do anything to it. Just wanted to see how it progressed.
This year I've really noticed it again as it's now leafing out. The whole branch is a completely different leaf shape to the rest of the plant, which has normal (if small) Butterfly leaves. Not grafted at all, grown from cuttings.
It's a bit of a strange plant.
I ended up leaving this odd branch with different leaves and didn't do anything to it. Just wanted to see how it progressed.
This year I've really noticed it again as it's now leafing out. The whole branch is a completely different leaf shape to the rest of the plant, which has normal (if small) Butterfly leaves. Not grafted at all, grown from cuttings.
It's a bit of a strange plant.
Attachments
No reason to keep it, its diverting energy from the butterfly parts
"It should be clearly evident that any new selection suitable for naming as a new cultivar must have such outstandingly desirable and distinctive features that it can easily be distinguished from any other existing cultivar. Discerning judgement must be exercised in selecting and naming a new form. This dictum applies with equal force in the case of dissectums and variegated maples."
Woocash
Omono
This happened on my butterfly last year as well. From observations it seems to be fairly common on variegated plants that they will revert back to the standard form in places. I know comparatively very little of A.palmatum cultivars, so couldn’t say whether there is anything distinguishing from the species plant in this reversion, but I suspect not particularly. Looks like a nice, healthy branch though so I’d probably layer it off and let butterfly (which doesn't seem to be the most robust cultivar) do its thing.
Relic37
Yamadori
I too have a Butterfly JM, but it is only a year old since a cutting. Therefore my knowledge is quite sparse. But the green leaf branch seems to be growing vigorously and I wonder if that is robbing energy from the Butterfly side? Or does it produce enough to actually augment the Butterfly side?
Ininaatigoons
Shohin
If you let it stay on it could be useful as sacrificial if you keep an eye on it
Deep Sea Diver
Imperial Masterpiece
We have a butterfly also… on its own roots, approximately 6yoa from Brent ant EGW.
Ours is tossing pale white green leaves on one low branch, which was kept, for now. It’s thickening the trunk.
Based upon the information in this thread, it may be that the butterfly mutates easily. Similar to Satsuki and other trees. The one on OP’s thread looks like it reverted back to a normal JM.
One might consider the design and when it no longer contributes to thickening look to airlayer the the branch off.
Ours is tossing pale white green leaves on one low branch, which was kept, for now. It’s thickening the trunk.
Based upon the information in this thread, it may be that the butterfly mutates easily. Similar to Satsuki and other trees. The one on OP’s thread looks like it reverted back to a normal JM.
One might consider the design and when it no longer contributes to thickening look to airlayer the the branch off.
Ininaatigoons
Shohin
The other thing is that according to Brent's description of maples variegated and dwarfs is that they can revert for a year or two when grown vigorously or pruned heavy. I hope that's the case because I still haven't seen any variegation on the one I bought a couple years ago. I have been growing it on. According to Mr.Maple if you over fertilize these selections they could revert. Some types could stay reverted. If a variegated tree is pruned heavy after loosing variagation it could come back.
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Interesting as I have not experienced what Brent or Mr. Maple described. I have one in development on its own roots. It was fertilized very heavily this past season with Osmocote. I saw rapid thickening and growth while the plant retained its variegated foliage. However, as perviously mentioned, it will throw out on occasion a shoot or two with standard palmatum leaves, in which case I just cut them off.
queenofsheba52
Chumono
I do not have a butterfly maple but I did lose a variegated azalea when it reverted to the regular green leaf, slowly, branch by branch and I didn't cut off the solid color branches. After a few years the whole plant had reverted.
Wires_Guy_wires
Imperial Masterpiece
Variegation is sometimes related to an inhibited uptake of certain metals like iron and magnesium and calcium. If you provide a all round nutrient that contains those, the plant might be able to accumulate enough to turn completely green like a regular plant. Cutting down on the metals and playing around with the soil pH could turn them variegated again. But this tells us something important: variegated is not a base state and it is related to plant health: no variegated plant is healthier than its green counterpart.
Sports are also a thing. As is mosaicism.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Sports are also a thing. As is mosaicism.
Sport (botany) - Wikipedia
Mosaic (genetics) - Wikipedia
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