In case you're not familiar with this cultivar, here's a picture of the whole plant:

. . . and a closeup of the normal foliage and growth characteristics:

My question for anyone out there who may better know this cultivar is, does it look like I have broom on my hands or is this normal growth that sometimes shows up?

~Dave

tj

Or, if Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Alaska' was found as a variegated seedling, then I would classify what you have there Dave is a "witches-broom-chimera", because it has the same colored traits as the parent and more importantly, the foliage is smaller/tighter/more congested than of the parent. If however the colored traits were different, then I would classify it as a new, sport.

Chimeras begin as shoots containing: lack of chlorophyll, i.e. variegation, from shoots that are fully green, fully blue, fully gold, etc-, and even from other variegated plants where the new mutation shows the exact same colors.

Sports are very similar to chimeras, however a sport is fully different from the color(s) of the parent. Dave shows us something with the same parent plant color. If Dave's new mutation had different colors than that of 'Alaska', I'd call it a "witches-broom-sport."

It's tough to break all these into an easy explanation but I hope I have. For me, I quit doing so a long time ago and simply decided that "mutation" was the easiest word to describe any occurrence where a bud grows something different of the parent.

Witches brooms...those are easy ones to declare since the foliage is always smaller/more congested/tighter... ...A reversion is the last term to complete "bud mutations." In a reversion, the foliage is always larger than the parent, the opposite of a witches' broom. So, just for example & hypothetically if Dave's mutation had larger foliage than the parent plant of C.obtusa 'Alaska' and kept the same color, I would have classified it as a "reversion-chimera" or if new colors and larger foliage, again, it would be a "reversion-sport."

Dax

~Dave

Dax

So my question is, are all variegates chimeras?

Whether chimera or sport becomes mucky water. If a green conifer produces an all yellow shoot, that's a sport (I don't know why, it just is). If an all green conifer produces a green and yellow variegated shoot, it too is a sport (characteristics of the parent remain). If an all green conifer produces a blue and yellow variegated shoot, that's a chimera (completely different from the parent).

When from a variegated plant such as Dave's...you'll have to re-read what I wrote, above. Things kind of get 'reversed'. His plant really threw a wrench into the equation.

I really cannot explain it better than that, Alex.

Dax