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coniferjoy

Picea mariana 'Stranger'

coniferjoy
10 years ago

January 20th 2012 my buddy Erik sent me an email of his new finds.
One of them was a blue-grey ball shaped form of a Picea abies.
It didn't take long before I saw that this one wasn't a Picea abies at all, but a Picea mariana, and it was a very old specimen, at least 50 years old!
How is it possible that such a big old globose form of this species is growing in a Dutch forest?
In this way he found this mystery conifer:

February 14th 2012 we went to this giant again and cut some scions for grafting.
This is our result now at June 17th 2013:
Picea mariana 'Stranger'.
We named it this way because it's very strange to us how it "landed" here in The Netherlands...

This post was edited by coniferjoy on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 16:22

Comments (12)

  • tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
    10 years ago

    That original plant did have a nice blue-grey color. Hopefully it won't be a stranger to the Americas.

    tj

  • gardener365
    10 years ago

    It had to be aliens. I knew they existed! ;)

    Dax

  • coniferjoy
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Tommy, the colour of the young growth is green, later on it will change to blue-grey again.
    Maybe some day youngsters of it will find it's way back to it's home country...

    Dax, could be aliens who transported it from the U.S. to The Netherlands.
    It's possible that they landed in the U.S. first and the plant got stuck in the landing gear.
    Later on it felt off and got dropped in this Dutch forest...
    This could be very nice back ground info for this one ;0)

    The globe shape part of this specimen is big, but also it's skirt has a huge circumference...
    {{gwi:754460}}

  • gardener365
    10 years ago

    You crack me up! ahhh, what a great smile you've created.

    Dax

  • taxo_man
    10 years ago

    Wow, that is a really neat tree. Thanks for sharing!
    Jeff

  • dietzjm
    10 years ago

    That's a beautiful mystery!

  • ogcon
    10 years ago

    Gee I hate to say this Edwin but alien craft don't utilize landing gear.....at least not the one that abducted me.Doug

  • liopleurodon
    10 years ago

    The chance that that P. mariana is growing in a Dutch P. abies forest may be as small as the chance there are effectively aliens, so who knows? :p

    Nice looking specimen though!

  • sluice
    10 years ago

    Nice find! I wonder if it was planted at the same time along with the other spruce in the stand.

  • coniferjoy
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Dax, by taking a closer look this specimen looks like an UFO to me, it does have the same shape.
    It's also possible that it run out of gas and got crashed into this field and changed later on into this plant for camouflage, waiting for help...

    Doug, from which planet did they abducted you?
    Did you phone home in the meanwhile?
    For E.T. it took a long time before he fixed that problem... ;0)

    Jeff, Matt, Liop and Nate, Thanks for your nice comments about this beautiful mysterious old tree.
    I'll pass it to Erik, he deserves all the credits for his finds.

    Nate, indeed, it could be planted in the same time as the other Piceas in the back ground, however, it's the only Picea mariana tree in the whole enviroment...

    This post was edited by coniferjoy on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 16:08

  • ogcon
    10 years ago

    I like your imagination Edwin.....sounds to me like you've got a novel in that head of yours....maybe even a movie.D.

  • monkeytreeboy15
    10 years ago

    Yes, a very amusing story, indeed.
    I too really like this plant, and it is a curiosity how it could have come to be in The Netherlands..
    Maybe some Dutch explorers to the "new world" found it in an American forest & brought it back to their homeland as pioneer conifer collectors. ;-)
    Their house is long gone, but their special plant lives on...

    -Sam

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