As you may know, Operculicarya decaryi, the Madagascar elephant tree, is
occasionally recommended for bonsai because of its curious appearance & small
leaves. Why a tree with neurofibromatosis is considered cute and a person with the
same disorder hideous is beyond me.
Anyway, I have had one for 10 years. I knew from reading up on it that it
does not require a regular dormancy, but if it has a chill or other shock, it
will lose all its leaves & take a nap. You stop watering it until it starts to
grow again. I have had this happen, & it wakes up after a couple of weeks with
no problem.
Last November I decided to follow someone's advice & repot it in an oval
instead of a round pot. The new pot was a little bigger, so I used a layer of
coarse conifer mix and the rest regular mix, which it was used to. I trimmed the
roots a little. I had repotted it in November before, & I had trimmed the
roots before, but this time I must have done something different. As always, I
put it under the fluorescent lights in my plant room, which normally encourages
rapid growth. However, for some reason the tree had a snit & lost its leaves.
I left it under the lights & cut back on watering. During this dormancy, I
only watered it once or twice a month. It sat there all winter. I could see it
was alive, as the cambium layer was bright green. There were recent pruning
cuts that remained moist. Very few twigs shriveled. There were buds, but they
didn't open. In May I put it outdoors with the rest of the tropicals & orchids, &
it continued to sleep. I was beginning to worry, because I wrote a magazine
article about this tree 7 years ago, & I would be terminally mortified if it
died. However, one day in June when I wasn't looking, after the weather turned
warm, the tree sat up, sneezed, & started growing again just as though nothing
at all had happened. Right now it looks more like the spring Equinox than the
summer Solstice, but who cares? It is very much alive. I think I will take
it to the Flower Fest Saturday, where our club has a display. People usually
find it amusing.
Apparently there is no technical term for this behavior. You can call it
culture shock, post traumatic stress disorder, or (ahem) persistent vegetative
state. But as Pauline said, don't give up on a tree you think is merely dead.
Wait until it is really most sincerely dead.
Iris

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Kevin Bailey++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++