On Leaves

[mountainfigs Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mountainfigs]

I'm far from the first to note the radically different shape of leaf margins manifest by Nero 600m, but I thought it interesting enough to share again. The first photo below, taken today, is not of two different plants but of a single small Nero 600m bush. Last year this bush showed only fingerlike leaves. This year after total top kill it shows both types for which it has become known.

As for the beast that is Celeste, I'd be curious to know if anyone is aware of a cultivar that has more velvety leaves than the strain of Celeste that has become known for its especially velvety leaves.

Many cultivars' leaves can become somewhat velvety, while many other cultivars seem to resist growing velvety at all or barely. Referring here to mature leaves, since the immature leaves of probably any cultivar can be velvety.

Plant and tree leaves of many species employ many different strategies to keep from drying out: being thin-lobed, or glossy ... or using the soft velvety fuzz to prevent dehydration. Mullein is a plant well known to employ the velvety strategy. The velvet fuzz protects leaves from desiccating effects of wind.

Celeste can be a big muscular tree, and is known for its especially small fruits. Probably not but any relation in that relation to the velvety leaves? This is for at least one particular strain of Celeste. It seems that other strains of Celeste do not get such velvety leaves.

[pppldj Veteran Find all posts View Profile Close pppldj]

Hollier and LSU IC leaves feel like velvet, too. They must have inherited this trait from their celeste lineage. Hunt feels somewhat like a cat's tongue.

[mountainfigs]

Hunt also has some Celeste lineage, I think, and I've noticed that both it and LSU IC can feel velvety too but they don't seem to be so with the frequency of Celeste. Hollier, too small here to say much.

[pppldj]

Hunt has Celeste, Green Ischia and Brown Turkey in its lineage. My Hollier is big enough to tell and the version of LSU IC that I have is very close. All of these are in ground.

[brettjm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close brettjm]

My Nero600m also does that, but not quite the same. Mine doesn't have any suckers yet (which normally are the weird leaves), but rather than 100% finger-like vs 100%...whatever that other shape is, mine is just a hodge podge. Good healthy plant though...high hopes.

[mountainfigs]

Nero 600m is one of those cultivars to me that is rewarding to simply watch the foliage and plant grow, for the finger-like leaves mainly. For a similar reason, I've always liked Stella, which has even more digitate leaves, though whether as a single trunk tree or bush Stella seems to grow less wild than N600, more vertical.

[brettjm]

My Nero600m almost croaked on me as a cutting. I kept rotting the bottom of it because I had no idea what I was doing. When it finally leafed out, it promptly grew 3 branches from a single node, so its quite bushy! Its quite happy currently, though I should probably train it...