Example of extreme leaf reduction ans ramification Olive Africana?

[Aiki_Joker]

Hey everyone. I found lots of wild olive trees recently and saw first had the ramification and left size reduction that this species is capable of!! Thee trees grow at high temp 45oC + and relatively high altitude in full sun... I hypothesise that mountain goats eat these olives down and actively prune them. I have seen them doing this and it seems to make sense?

This specimen shows two startlingly different leaf sizes at different heights due to the goats inability to graze the top half! The ramification on some of these is huge too! The ramified branches are solid and steady like a nail brush.
~5cm to <~1cm!

Ramified and reduced at the bottom!


Close up of ramification! :0)0

 

[hemmy]

Amazing! I bet you are right on the goats. Our cattle would do the same on the scrub Siberian Elms.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

45 C is hot, (roughly 113 F for USA residents) Hotter than Palm Springs in July.

Nice to see natural growth habit of olives. and reduction possible. Thanks.

 

[M. Frary]

roughly 113 F for USA residents

Not this one! That number is just too damn high.

 

[bonhe]

Hi Aiki_Joker,
Thanks for taking time to take those pictures and sharing with us. If you could show us the whole olive trees in the mountain, it would be very great!
I agree with your hypothesis. It is understandable. When the tree is in the stress due to disturbance at the lower part of it, it will try to grow fast with big leaves on the top to compensate for energy production. Most of its energy will be diverted to the top part, and it is why the leaves in the lower part are much smaller. We can apply this phenomenon into our bonsai training.
Bonhe

 

[Aiki_Joker]

Not this one! That number is just too damn high.

Ha ha ha. Indeed. It actually gets to 50C here sometimes (regularly for a few months). People posting dash pics of upto 56C (of course in the car in the sun it is hotter than shade).

I find difficulty getting how hot a plant can go to when looking at new plants, the info only really says how cold they go to ha ha ha. It's winter here now and never gets less than 20C at night. The mountains get cold to 0 though.

 

[Aiki_Joker]

Hi Aiki_Joker,
Thanks for taking time to take those pictures and sharing with us. If you could show us the whole olive trees in the mountain, it would be very great!
I agree with your hypothesis. It is understandable. When the tree is in the stress due to disturbance at the lower part of it, it will try to grow fast with big leaves on the top to compensate for energy production. Most of its energy will be diverted to the top part, and it is why the leaves in the lower part are much smaller. We can apply this phenomenon into our bonsai training.
Bonhe

Well kind of, but the smaller lower leaves produce just as much energy because they are more dense. Per unit leaf there is less, but overall there is probably similar. The plant has to have this balance see. They are also greener so more chlorophyll. This means more energy per unit area of leaf if comparison to less green leaves. The twigging and number of leaves makes it harder for grazers to graze then off in one go and gives the plant time to recover. If the leaves were larger and twigging looser, the plant could find itself with no leaves after one grazing session. The twigs are so strong they feel like coral or something! Amazing really.

Here are the trees, bear in mind this place is very hot and windswept so these trees have a cocktail glass appearance as the very top shoots die back with the sun and kind of chop the top of the trees off. Growing outwards at the top is the result and the overall branch structure is beautifully reverse taper.



I have no doubt that some of these trees are hundreds of years old. So many have grown and died too. There is one here that I think is not an olive. I just liked the nabari

 

[Aiki_Joker]

See all of the bark on that non olive has produced a jiin. The goats have grazed all of this bark off. Areas they can reach are barked and jiined areas are naturally bleached by the sun

 

[Anthony]

@Aiki_Joker ,

interesting we will be entering or "Winter " dropping to 22 deg.C at night then onto 20 deg.C and the occasional 18 deg.c
Temp. holds from 5.30 p.m until 8.30 a.m or so.
Highs will be less than 30 deg.C [ 70, 68, 66 and 86 deg.F for the North Americans ] until February.
60 m [ say 200 feet ] makes a difference in the Tropics, always wondered what 900 m [ 3000 feet ] would be like in our Mountains.

The small leaf olive from S.Africa, lives here [ from a seed gift 1983 or so ] but does not like to be pruned too much or branches die.

Great images.
Thank you.
Good Day
Anthony

* greatest high for 30 minutes or less - 35 deg.c [ 95 deg.F ]
Please note our air temperatures are recorder at the airport - some 13 to 20 m [ 40 /60 or so feet ] above sea level

 

[just.wing.it]

Cool pics! thanks

 

[bonhe]

Aiki_Joker, post: 404517, member: 20268"]Well kind of, but the smaller lower leaves produce just as much energy because they are more dense. Per unit leaf there is less, but overall there is probably similar. The plant has to have this balance see. They are also greener so more chlorophyll. This means more energy per unit area of leaf if comparison to less green leaves.

Well, more chlorophyll does not mean more energy production. There is a research found out that the reduction of the leaf chlorophyll content level per unit leaf area in crops may be an advantage for higher yields. The reasons are that there is
better light distribution and less photochemical damage to leaves. Chloroplasts are nutrient rich and reducing their number may increase available nutrients for growth and development.
The leaves on the top are less green because there is reduced chlorophyll. It will help reducing the heat load at the top of canopy, reducing water requirements to cool leaves.

The twigging and number of leaves makes it harder for grazers to graze then off in one go and gives the plant time to recover. If the leaves were larger and twigging looser, the plant could find itself with no leaves after one grazing session. The twigs are so strong they feel like coral or something! Amazing really.
Yes, the trees create their own protection.

Here are the trees, bear in mind this place is very hot and windswept so these trees have a cocktail glass appearance as the very top shoots die back with the sun and kind of chop the top of the trees off. Growing outwards at the top is the result and the overall branch structure is beautifully reverse taper.
Thank you very much for the beautiful pictures and information.
Bonhe

 

[Boscology]

Sweet pics from Oman!

Keep on hiking!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Great photos

 

[Paradox]

The deadwood on that trunk and roots looks amazing.
Pretty cool looking trees

 

[Mikecheck123]

I've seen some pretty crazy examples. Look at this one: http://instagr.am/p/B1lf0T2gthI/