Thanks very much for your reply. It clarified the question completely for
me. I was not aware that juvenile foliage might be quite different from the
adult type.

TMS
"TMS" wrote in message
...
This tree was bought as a 12" "living Christmas tree" by my daughter in
December of 2008. She had no place to transplant it after the holidays,
and, rather than discard it, she gave it to me to plant in my back yard.
Much to my surprise the new growth was not spruce, but pbvious pine
needles. There is no evidence of any grafting. The original lower portion
of the tree remains healthy spruce, but all new growth is pine, including
sme pine needles growing on the orinal spruce branches, as seen the the
photographs. No one to whom I have shown the tree has rational any
explanation for this phenomenon, and I am curious to learn what the
explanation might be for such a transition. Is this (1) unusual, (2)
reasonably common, or (3) totally bizarre?

Here are the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10531633@N00/

Thanks,

TMS