I could see it happening with a root stock, but this is a big old gum tree. Anyone ever seen this?
Edit: if I was to speculate, the leaves above look like a typical wattle leaf while the lower leaves look like bluegum. Growing out of brand stumps(?).
by Gorreksson
10 Comments
Location New Norfolk Tasmania.
the other leaves look suspiciously like wattle… but it’ll be a miseltoe
https://preview.redd.it/38g0co66jnyg1.png?width=309&format=png&auto=webp&s=ced7cc2d63631aec609c762ba7280fde8c7356d8
Sounds like mistletoe, a parasitic plant. I’m not wearing my glasses so can’t see details in your photo
It’s hard to tell, but it could be just the immature leaves – or it could be a mistletoe. We have quite a lot of them. [https://blog.publish.csiro.au/australian-mistletoes/](https://blog.publish.csiro.au/australian-mistletoes/)
Lots of eucalyptus have different juvenile leaves to the mature leaf form. It’s not about the age of the tree, it’s new growth from a new growth point (called epicormic growth). The established branches will grow the mature leaf form
It’s pretty common where larger branches have been cut off – the new growth is from epicormic buds.
The juvenile foliage is an after-bushfire adaptation when they have no leaves but an intact root-system, as juvenile foliage has a larger photosynthetic area, but is less water efficient.
That’s just new growth
Photos show juvenile leaves quite clearly (more blue grey) and no obvious signs of mistletoe.
This would be one of the Eucalyptus globulus subspecies
They are new and young, they change shape as they grow.
I wonder how many litres of water this tree drinks per day.