AusBonsai

Hi Ken,
I have seen a few older tridents around the hills and their bark tends to be more smooth. The thing about the trees I saw in Fitzroy is that they are quite young maybe 8-10 years I would guess. I had the opportunity once to work on some imported tridents for a friend of mine which would have been at least 20 years old and they also had smooth bark.
Craig

kcpoole wrote:I asked Ray and Clinton last nigh about them
And Ray reckons that it is quite normal for all older tridents to do this with the flaking Bark.
To be honest I have never seen it before but really have never noticed any mature trident around home either

Anyone else seen any mature tridents and know?
Although I do think the seeds are slightly different shape than the "normal" trees

Ken

The trident in the neighbors yard that gave me all my seedlings had bark like this and I was also told it was normal for a trident. I was told the rough bark trident was different but have never seen a picture to compare.

http://mohsho.image.coocan.jp/acerph17.html
I have been told that any one tree can be fairly variable in leaf shape and bark texture. I saw the neighbours mature trident leaves turn from single lobed to multi lobed over 4 years. So much so that it took me two years to work out where all my wild trident seedlings where coming from
I had the tree Identified by NSW botanical gardens and they stated it was a normal trident and explained that the leaves change from year to year due to growing conditions.

cool thanls Brett. Clear as mud now

Maybe normal, Maybe just seasonal

I wil try to grow my seeds and cuttings and see what we end up with

ken

Hi Ken,
The proof will be in the pudding will be very interested in the results of your propagating efforts. I guess I will have to be patient.
Regards from Craig