Saint Jonny
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Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:08 am
Location: Harpenden, UK

Can you Identify these Saplings?

Found these two little saplings in the forest the other day. I'm hoping to train them into Bonsai if they survive! I'm sure the one on the left is an Oak. Does anyone know what the one on the right is?

[img]https://micradendra.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dsc03331.jpg[/img][/img]

kdodds
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Posts: 1436
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:07 pm
Location: Airmont, NY Zone 6/7

I forget the genus name, something that begins with a "K", I think. It produces seed pods like paper lanterns. I brought a few of those pods back with me from a pitstop in SC on the way home from GA a couple of years back. They took and they're still growing. Indoors, in a cold window, they still go dormant every year. Very slow growers, though.

kdodds
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:07 pm
Location: Airmont, NY Zone 6/7

Found it: Koelreuteria paniculata, most likely if you're in the NC/SC area.

Saint Jonny
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Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:08 am
Location: Harpenden, UK

Thanks Kdodds. That certainly looks right. Seems weird though cos I'm actually in England and it was a mature forest I took the sapling from. Certainly is more convincing than those online leaf identifiers which are telling me its a box elder!

TomM
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Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:28 am
Location: Cedarville (SE of Utica) NY, USA

Heck, I would have guessed that it was a fern of some sort. :lol:
Love ferns. I use Japanese painted fern as an accent plant for bonsai at shows and exhibits.

Thanx for showing these Saint Jonny in UK.

kdodds
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Posts: 1436
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:07 pm
Location: Airmont, NY Zone 6/7

They're actually from Asia and were transplanted into Europe first, then the States. They "Golden Rain Tree" is far more prevalent here, but there are other species it could be. I seem to remember the seed pods I harvested from a rest stop tree being more red than golden, come to think of it. So it could be the "Chinese Flame Tree" I have. I won't know for a while, that's for sure. I'm two years past seedling and still haven't got a single decent branch out of two trees.



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