The Biosphere Blog

Back on 17th October I began what was intended to be a photo diary of awakening buds and their shoots. Naturally that one tree I specifically picked out refused to cooperate any further and has since died (no green sap any more). On 12th November I… more »

Updated: This Post Back on 1st October I wrote about this little Si-Hong: I mentioned how it had just one branch, a single fruiting mother branch, circled below: Yes, that knobbly protrusion is a branch! It grows just a few millimetres a year and… more »

The Bud Diary: Part 1: Introduction I wrote some posts recently as introductions to the unusual branch structure of jujube trees — here and here — but these were pretty much informal segues not at all clear from the titles. So instead of continuing, I… more »

What Would You Make of This Tree? Below is one little Si-Hong, grafted in 2023, in a pot of 190 mm diameter and height. Is your first impression somewhat unfavourable?! I find this little fellow so charming and full of heart, that I can’t help but… more »

Which Tree Would You Choose? The three trees below are all 2022 grafted Li. The trunk of the tallest is about 500 mm high. These and a few others had lovely thick roots, but these were not especially long or dense. There was absolutely nothing wrong… more »

Below is a photo of a Chico taken by Kim Sau, who has kindly given permission to use it: This tree is a perfect size to use as an exercise in identifying both the graft and all four branch types of a jujube tree, so let us begin! (Please consider this… more »

Introduction Jujube tree trunks and branches are, botanically-speaking, stems. A stem is one of several plant organs, and, like all organs plant or animal, is specialised for specific roles. A stem is the plant organ which provides structure and… more »

Last week we covered the location of jujube tree nodes and the two types of buds present at each node. (That post has since been updated to include a crash-course description of the branch types as well.) The post ended with a summary of what each bud… more »

Nodes and Buds A ‘bud’, in botany, is a compact, undeveloped shoot which may develop into a twig/branch, leaf, or flower. The region in which buds are located is called a node, and the area between nodes is called an internode. Nodes are the… more »

This earlier post described the four branch types peculiar to jujube trees: primary (extension) branches, secondary (non-extension) branches, fruiting mother branches, and fruiting branchlets. Also mentioned were the two bud types, main and secondary,… more »

Around 7pm the other evening I was perusing my trees, and — as I often do, gently pulled down a fruiting branchlet above to look more closely with my loupe at the flowers and developing fruits along it. To my absolute horror it came away in my hand! I… more »

This week I thought I’d follow up on the last paragraph of this older post that had been getting some recent attention, as well as my comment under that post. Fig. 1 below is the very same Lang referred to. This photo was taken on 19th October… more »