Interesting mutations on elms

[Rodrigo]

I bought 5 Siberian elm clumps from @cmeg1 a while back and have been growing two in grow bags, planted in a raised bed



They're all growing very well, are super healthy, but two of them have interesting mutations (?) that I personally have never seen before!

The the three mutations are all on one single trunk:
Conical leaves. It's not that they're just curled leaves, they're actually shaped like that and are attached where they curl



Duo-leaves. There's multiple of these but I only took a couple of pictures (you can see two in the picture below, the top leaf where my finger is and the next leaf that's facing down)


Branches splitting down the middle and continuing to grow. It's not a bud that's now the same size as the branch, it's like the branch literally clones itself into two


And then on another tree, opposite leaf pattern


Anyone else see anything like this before?
@cmeg1, I know you mentioned on another post you'd seen the opposite leaf pattern but that it'd go away, but have you seen any of the others?

 

[19Mateo83]

I bought 5 Siberian elm clumps from @cmeg1 a while back and have been growing two in grow bags, planted in a raised bed

View attachment 562005View attachment 562006
View attachment 562019
They're all growing very well, are super healthy, but two of them have interesting mutations (?) that I personally have never seen before!

The the three mutations are all on one single trunk:
Conical leaves. It's not that they're just curled leaves, they're actually shaped like that and are attached where they curl
View attachment 562008
View attachment 562011View attachment 562018

Duo-leaves. There's multiple of these but I only took a couple of pictures (you can see two in the picture below, the top leaf where my finger is and the next leaf that's facing down)
View attachment 562012View attachment 562013

Branches splitting down the middle and continuing to grow. It's not a bud that's now the same size as the branch, it's like the branch literally clones itself into two
View attachment 562009View attachment 562010

And then on another tree, opposite leaf pattern
View attachment 562016View attachment 562015View attachment 562014

Anyone else see anything like this before?
@cmeg1, I know you mentioned on another post you'd seen the opposite leaf pattern but that it'd go away, but have you seen any of the others?

I’ve seen the branch split into two like that on JM

 

[Time Wizard]

I have an elm tree that I am growing out that has a few curled leaves like yours. At first I thought a bug was doing it.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

It's probably a local defect of the abscisic acid hormone that during proliferation quit functioning well, causing the cells to clump instead of being molecularly cut.
I'm not sure what causes this, but it happens every now and then on most plants.

It's not per say a mutation, it can be influenced by a lot of things. Mutations are genetic and would show throughout the whole plant.
Weird localized physiological behavior in plants can be caused by many things, like misfolds in proteins, viruses, the lack of cofactors, bacterial or fungal infections, insects (like gall wasps make plants produce structures they could never on their own), sunlight, and a bunch of other things.
Most of the times, it's a one-season-thing and growth would continue as normal in the next spring.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

At first I thought a bug was doing it.

Most of the time they are bugs - which curl the leaf and web it closed. But this is a case where the leaf itself is curled and is grown together at the base.

 

[Rodrigo]

Most of the time they are bugs - which curl the leaf and web it closed. But this is a case where the leaf itself is curled and is grown together at the base.

Yeah I also get plenty of those but like you said, these are grown like that.

Thanks everyone for your input. Super interesting, @Wires_Guy_wires! I'll be watching next spring to see if it corrects itself. Like I said, it's growing well so it's not affecting the health at all that I can see

 

[cmeg1]

I bought 5 Siberian elm clumps from @cmeg1 a while back and have been growing two in grow bags, planted in a raised bed

View attachment 562005View attachment 562006
View attachment 562019
They're all growing very well, are super healthy, but two of them have interesting mutations (?) that I personally have never seen before!

The the three mutations are all on one single trunk:
Conical leaves. It's not that they're just curled leaves, they're actually shaped like that and are attached where they curl
View attachment 562008
View attachment 562011View attachment 562018

Duo-leaves. There's multiple of these but I only took a couple of pictures (you can see two in the picture below, the top leaf where my finger is and the next leaf that's facing down)
View attachment 562012View attachment 562013

Branches splitting down the middle and continuing to grow. It's not a bud that's now the same size as the branch, it's like the branch literally clones itself into two
View attachment 562009View attachment 562010

And then on another tree, opposite leaf pattern
View attachment 562016View attachment 562015View attachment 562014

Anyone else see anything like this before?
@cmeg1, I know you mentioned on another post you'd seen the opposite leaf pattern but that it'd go away, but have you seen any of the others?

I have seen all of these examples on the Elms I have.

Them trunks will be nice next season!
Fine tree to work with.

 

[cmeg1]

@Rodrigo
Another season or so and the trunks start looking nice.Yours will be impressive……..
Here was my single…….I have since lopped it of at the base to re-grow a multi trunk.

 

[cmeg1]

I will get a current picture of the chop…. Can really have endless fun with these…….I will orobably just keep chopping this every season to the ground and have a really masive gnarly clump……..I may do that to several if not all 300 of them outside.

 

[cmeg1]

******* not to be a thread hijacker****