Spruce to Pine Puzzlement
 

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

Spruce to Pine Puzzlement
 

Le Sat, 2 Jan 2010 08:32:22 -0800, "TMS" a écrit :

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/

This is the normal way of growing of some pine species (not all).
Juvenile foliage is different.
For example here in France we have Stone pine (Pinus pinea) that
typically grows that way : from seedling to 2 or 3 years old the young
plant looks like the one shown on your pictures, with blueish foliage.
Needles are not arranged by pairs or not grouped by 3 or 5 as they are
normally for pines but disposed all around the shoot.
After a while, about 3 years or so, juvenile foliage is not produced
anymore and the pine finally starts looking like a pine !

Olivier
--
http://nothofagus.free.fr
http://florenligne.free.fr

Spruce to Pine Puzzlement
 

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

Spruce to Pine Puzzlement
 

This is quite common. It has something to do with adapting to
the environment that the plant is exposed to at different stages
of growth.


"TMS" wrote in message
...
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