Portulacaria Afra and some variegata

ShimpakuBonsai

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I couldn't help myself, I just wanted to buy some Portulacaria Afra.
I want to try to start them growing indoors in the windowsill of my home office the coming winter.

I found a webshop who sells 3 different species and I orded them all.
- Portulacaria Afra
- Portulacaria Afra Variegata
- Portulacaria Afra Variegata Lemon

The Variegata species look like they are opposite of eachother.
- Portulacaria Afra Variegata has white edges and green center
- Portulacaria Afra Variegata Lemon has green edges and white center

The pots containts 4 rooted cuttings which I want to seperate and make individual plants/trees.

Here are some pictures I borrowed from the webshop to show the different species.

Portulacaria Afra

Portulacaria-Afra-01.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-02.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-03.jpg

Portulacaria Afra Variegata

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-01.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-02.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-03.jpg

Portulacaria Afra Variegata Lemon

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-Lemon-01.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-Lemon-02.jpg

Portulacaria-Afra-Variegata-Lemon-03.jpg
 

Carol 83

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I like the last one, those pink stems are pretty striking. I keep some in a southern window at work over the winter, they do fine.
 

Forsoothe!

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This do-able. You need to acquire some pots that will sit on a 4" windowsill which will be your first obstacle. You can buy vases like that from a florist. If you insist on having drainage holes in it, then you will have to find a tray will fit under it on the windowsill. That's more difficult. You can make the vases work as-is by watering with a dedicated vessel that will hold only the right amount of water and giving it on a schedule that you can remember. I use medical pill containers that will hold about 15% of the volume of the pot and water every 3 or 6 days, depending upon pot size and plant usage. The system works on calendar dates: every 3rd day means watering on every day divisible by 3; 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. Trying to remember by days of week leads to insanity. Here are some Ficus 'Too Little' windowboxes...
FTL WB blue & white.JPGFTL WB flowers.JPGFTL WB green.JPGFTL WB double.JPG

FTL WB pink.JPG
I sell these to people at an art fair that I have an informational bonsai display at every Labor Day. People interested bonsai need to buy something that works for them, and my goal is to make sure they succeed with the first plant they buy. Ficus are bulletproof, and I give the buyers a "Bonsai As a Houseplant" written instructions, and a vessel (a medicine bottle) that holds the right amount of water, so it's hard to screw-up. Portulacaria will work with a 6, 7, or 8 day interval.
 

ShimpakuBonsai

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When searching for varieties I found the Portulacaria variegata Mediopicta.
It looks like the Portulacaria variegata Lemon I bought a few days ago.
Does anybody know what the difference is between those two?

Here is a picture I borrowed from a webshop who sells it.

HOC0314PAM_1.png
 

Forsoothe!

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Media picta means painted in the middle and is probably the Latin nomenclature for the same plant, or not. There may be two or more sports in the trade that look the same.
 
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I'm not sure the cultivar or variety names for these, but I picked up this large cluster at Home Depot for $17.
F04D7687-BB12-4767-98AA-309F84634940.jpeg

I wasn't really interested in buying more elephant bush as I already have too many cuttings and plants lol, but what made it go right into my shopping cart was that some of the branches are growing completely albino leaves. I thought maybe they might darken or color with direct sunlight, but they have been outside all summer and are still as white as the day I bought it.

1B6C2CF0-6F08-4FF4-B322-46D7473AD31A.jpeg
06B9BDDB-AC12-4CAA-A556-15515089062C.jpeg56757E01-4B64-41BF-9CFF-B7AA41DE1B90.jpeg
I honestly have no immediate plans for it at the moment, so it's just sitting on the side of my yard that P.A.s seem to love, until the Temps start dropping and then I'll bring it into the plant room inside. It definitely needs to be up potted as roots are coming out of the drain hole.
 

Eckhoffw

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I'm not sure the cultivar or variety names for these, but I picked up this large cluster at Home Depot for $17.
View attachment 397099

I wasn't really interested in buying more elephant bush as I already have too many cuttings and plants lol, but what made it go right into my shopping cart was that some of the branches are growing completely albino leaves. I thought maybe they might darken or color with direct sunlight, but they have been outside all summer and are still as white as the day I bought it.

View attachment 397100
View attachment 397101View attachment 397102
I honestly have no immediate plans for it at the moment, so it's just sitting on the side of my yard that P.A.s seem to love, until the Temps start dropping and then I'll bring it into the plant room inside. It definitely needs to be up potted as roots are coming out of the drain hole.
Bought a similar group from HD a couple of years ago, that I made into a forest project. Also see some all whites on mine. 119C83A7-ADA4-4FA7-B3D3-E493157A9FEF.jpegC28116FE-194F-4E23-962C-BDF02FD6BE4E.jpeg
 
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Do portulacaria afra wounds heal at all? I dismantled a Lowe's cluster a couple months ago and the largest trunk in the cluster had some pretty severe scarring on it from some point in it's history. And I'm wondering if the trunk chop will ever heal. I'm guessing no, but figured I'd ask. The chop bark shrunk back from the original cut, and I'm planning on carving out the dead material at the chop when it's a bit healthier. But that massive trunk wound is a bummer for my plans.8A9D05B6-016A-45A0-9870-3EE44F57ED74.jpegD41FA99D-A6CA-4E2A-9700-0729C63794CF.jpeg
 

Nivel

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Do portulacaria afra wounds heal at all? I dismantled a Lowe's cluster a couple months ago and the largest trunk in the cluster had some pretty severe scarring on it from some point in it's history. And I'm wondering if the trunk chop will ever heal. I'm guessing no, but figured I'd ask. The chop bark shrunk back from the original cut, and I'm planning on carving out the dead material at the chop when it's a bit healthier. But that massive trunk wound is a bummer for my plans
View attachment 397140 View attachment 397141

If you cut between internodes (closer to the bottom one) and let that less than half internode to dry out, It will drop just leaving an smooth "cut"

crasulacut.png
 
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Interesting the last variety is “Lemon”. Mine look exactly like that but called “kaleidoscope”. Just bought a few of them over the course of last week
 

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Carol 83

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Interesting the last variety is “Lemon”. Mine look exactly like that but called “kaleidoscope”. Just bought a few of them over the course of last week
I like the pink, haven't seen those around here.
 

ShimpakuBonsai

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The Lemon, Mediopicta and Kaleidoscope all look the same to me and all have pink stems.

I recently saw a Youtube video with varieties called Minima/Lilliput, Rainbow Manny and Mammoth but I haven't found these for sale in Europe.
 

cishepard

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P. Afra leaves are edible (and quite tasty in a salad) … maybe the ‘lemon‘ variety has a lemony flavour.
Try it!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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There is commercial pressure to register new cultivars of a species. The presence or absence of variegation is not genetic in a Mendelian sense, it is an Epigenetic trait. It is a function of methylation of genes, which occurs by a different pathway than classic mutation of DNA. The methylation blocks the reading of a segment of DNA, and it can or does occasionally reverse, which is why variegated leaf plants are known to revert back to normal on occasion. Depending on where or how the methylation happens you can have margin patterns, where the center is green, the margin is white, central variegates, where the center lacks pigments, and several versions of stripes. Where the leaves are streaked or striped with white or yellow tissue.

At any rate, the same "mistakes", or methylation events can occur on different plants. Very similar variegated cultivars (clones) can appear, because the mechanism is the same, even though it is happening in different clones (seedlings = unique individuals). The naming system for registering, patenting and trademarking unique cultivars (clones) assumes that each cultivar is genetically unique. The result because the mechanism for creating variegated foliage has a limited number of ways that it can occur, you will end up with plants that are from different seeds, hence different cultivars that develop very similar if not identical variegation patterns.

There is also the provenance issue. Portulacaria afra propagates extremely prolifically from cuttings. A commercial nursery can crank out thousands from just one or two "mother plants". In the USA it is quite likely that Portulacaria afra was only imported from South Africa a small handful of times. It propagates so easily in the nursery setting that it is quite likely commercial nurseries never bothered to import it again. And quite likely did not reproduce it from seed, where you would get some re-assortment of DNA and variation in genetics. I would not be surprised to learn in USA there are only a couple clones of P. afra in circulation. But without provenance of each cultivar, this is all speculation.

There is an economic benefit to patent, trademark and or register a new clone of a popular nursery plant. Whether these similar looking plants are really different cultivars from different seeds (different clones) or are they simply the same small handful of cultivars which were propagated, and the same epigenetic mutation arose at different nurseries all raising the same one or two clones of Portulacaria afra. The last is a nursery renamed a plant as a way of increasing sales by marketing it as something new? They only way to know is to research the provenance, and that would take some sleuthing, and willing cooperation of the nurseries to divulge their sources.

I do like the cultivar with the cherry red stems, that is different. Quite nice. I will keep an eye out for one in my neighborhood, now that I know it exists.
 
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