“Bract” Buds?

[markyscott]

So I think we’re all at least familiar with the growth patterns of Japanese Black PIne. After the spring growth, terminal bud development continues through the summer and is wrapped up by fall. The base of the terminal bud is the seasonal node. Internodal elongation of the winter bud takes place in the following spring and essentially all of the activity is below the shoot apical meristem. The elongation itself produces a long candle consisting of a basal portion devoid of needles called the “neck” and a upper portion in which the needles will extend from their sheath. The shoot apical meristem itself will remain pretty much inactive until sometime in the period of elongation, when it starts forming the next bud. You can see the parts of the shoot on the extending candles of this Eastern White Pine.


I’m used to adventitious buds forming one of two places - either at one of the the seasonal nodes OR at the base of a needle pair. The latter are sometimes referred to as needle buds to distinguish them from buds forming at the nodes.

You can see both types of adventitious buds in this picture by Eric Schrader - the axial buds forming at the node and the needle buds forming at the base of a needle pair.

 

[markyscott]

Along the neck of the extending candle, you’ll often see “bracts” - theyre pseudo-needles that may or may not be associated with a needle pair. They look like this picture from Bonsai Tonight:


Jonas is pulling a bract. Sometimes there are needles associated with a bract, but sometimes there are not.

S

 

[markyscott]

What I’ve never seen are buds forming at the base of bracts that don’t have any needles growing from them. At least I’ve never seen them until now. Anyone else seen something like this on a JBP? It’s a first for me.

 

[Wilson]

Holy crap that's a lot of buds!!! Did you give this tree the radioactive ferts?! I have never seen that, but it sure looks cool!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I have NEVER seen anything like that on any kind of a JBP - and I have kotobuki and yatsubusa that are pretty prolific back-budders. There is a bud at every bracht!! What in the world did you do?

 

[0soyoung]

@bonhe was doing this by keeping a lot of stem when candle pruning, but otherwise I've not seen anything like this before. Man, think about the short designer internodes one could make with this!!

 

[just.wing.it]

Yeah, @0soyoung
Is this similar to @bonhe's experiments with back budding in the neck?

Edit: were his necks lignified?

Very cool @markyscott !

 

[markyscott]

I love seeing something new in JBP. This occurred on one of my seedling cuttings I’ve been writing about on this thread. It was not decandled this year and I didn’t pluck any needles. I didn’t do anything unusual to the tree in terms of fertilization. The candle extended normally but the neck was unusually long and there were fewer needles than I expected (note how they’re all clustered at the end of last years shoot).

I wondered if maybe these were actually needle buds, but the needles didn’t grow at these points for some reason. Even if they were, ive never seen buds forming at the base of every needle on the shoot. Weird. Curious to see how these grow next spring.

S

 

[Adair M]

I usually don’t see bracts without a pair of needles. So, I think it’s unusual in that respect, too.

It looks like it still produced some “neck” without needles nor bracts.

@bonhe was saying he was getting back budding in the “neck” area. I never have gotten true back budding once the neck is no longer green. Occasionally, very occasionally, a spring candle will start to grow, and a second candle will grow out of the first candle’s “neck”. And there still be a bit of green neck below. It’s like it grew two heads! Maybe one out of 500 candle does this. When I decandle, I remove both!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

New to me too. Pretty cool. It will be interesting to see what next year brings.

 

[markyscott]

I usually don’t see bracts without a pair of needles. So, I think it’s unusual in that respect, too.

And where there ARE needles, no buds. Seems weird.

S

 

[garywood]

MS, do you know or can explain why the shoot is so long with needles only at the tip? That's not typical so I'm curious of your early spring fertilizing.

 

[markyscott]

MS, do you know or can explain why the shoot is so long with needles only at the tip? That's not typical so I'm curious of your early spring fertilizing.

It was very unusual growth relative to both my experience and to the other seedlings growing around them. Those experienced normal looking growth. I generally put on fresh fertilizer bags in the spring and start liquid fertilizer application then as well.

S

 

[It's Kev]

I don’t have any buds on my bracts, but I saw this on my free cascading experimental JBP...
What appears to look like the beginning of a random back bud


The coconut JBP is way too young and doesnt have empty bracts, but it does have weird little growths all over it...
What’s going on here?


And I also noticed that this bud here is longer then the rest...what’s going on here?

 

[River's Edge]

What I’ve never seen are buds forming at the base of bracts that don’t have any needles growing from them. At least I’ve never seen them until now. Anyone else seen something like this on a JBP? It’s a first for me.
View attachment 222316View attachment 222317View attachment 222318

Curious, what are the circumstances that led up to this? Even with my most current set of bifocals i have not seen anything like this response.
Read more closely the other responses, thanks Scott. Going to keep an eye out for this. I have noticed buds on the neck before as noted by @bonhe,
I note that there is one central and one side bud on the apex. Was that natural or a reduction?

 

[It's Kev]

@River's Edge i think that bracts are just a pine’s version of nodes maybe. Both my pines are young and I see what looks like nodes all over the trunk.

now, whether a tree will back bud on this depends completely on luck and fertilising the right way. My reckoning is that bracts help to protect the nodes on new wood/semi hardwood/last year’s growth/whatever. I’m totally open to correction here.
I can google day and night like a crazy obsessed person, but it comes down to the fact that I only have 2 months of pine-having experience

 

[Adair M]

Scott, I’m wondering is those buds you’re seeing might just be immature pollen cones? I mean, they LOOK like buds, but that’s the location on the twig that would produce pollen cones, too.

Just a thought...

 

[Adair M]

@River's Edge i think that bracts are just a pine’s version of nodes maybe. Both my pines are young and I see what looks like nodes all over the trunk.
View attachment 222332
now, whether a tree will back bud on this depends completely on luck and fertilising the right way. My reckoning is that bracts help to protect the nodes on new wood/semi hardwood/last year’s growth/whatever. I’m totally open to correction here.
I can google day and night like a crazy obsessed person, but it comes down to the fact that I only have 2 months of pine-having experience

Those locations appear to be where there used to be a pair of needles. So those would be dormant “needle buds” that can produce a back bud.

 

[0soyoung]

i think that bracts are just a pine’s version of nodes maybe.

Anywhere there is a bud is potentially a node. Usually we think of the terminal whorl as the only node, but release a bud, let a shoot grow and the union point is a node. So anywhere there is a bud is potentially a node (sort of shocking the first time it is said, but on second thought, it is a 'blinding flash of the obvious' )

 

[markyscott]

Scott, I’m wondering is those buds you’re seeing might just be immature pollen cones? I mean, they LOOK like buds, but that’s the location on the twig that would produce pollen cones, too.

Just a thought...

Interesting thought. I’m not used to seeing pollen cones develop on last years growth. I’m used to seeing them packed around the apical meristem before the spring candle extends. But who knows. This is new to me. We’ll find out for sure in a couple months.

S