Holly leaves changing shape?!

[Treeaddict]

I’ve personally never seen this on a holly. All the leaves are pointed where I’m from and we have lots of deer. Anyone seen this behavior. It’s interesting for sure.

 

[lxskllr]

That's interesting. I'm looking at a holly right now, and all the leaves are spined; same as every other holly I've seen. Most of mine are fairly unmolested aside from the occasional branch removal, so I don't see it as an environmental adaption.

 

[Treeaddict]

That’s what I’m thinking. The post was in the ISA study group on FaceToc which gave it some credibility in my mind.

 

[stig]

Ilex aquifolium does that all the time.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I did saw some holly (not all) with spinny / less spinny leaves, but my thought was that it was related to the light exposure : small spinny leaves in full sun light, bigger and less spinny leaves in the shadowed part of the crown. Just my constatation, but this variability may be influenced by other factors, I don't know.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Like an oak tree having 8 plus leaf shapes depending on the pollen donor.

 

[Burnham]

They are variable in shape here. I don't know the species, but it's not native.

 

[pete mctree]

I always thought that spiny/spikey leaves and extra thorny growth across many species was a simple grazing reaction. What animal wants there mouth destroyed?

 

[Bermy]

Like hawthorn, spiney new growth, older stuff not so many spines.

 

[Tommy_B]

Exactly what Bermy said. The older growth is less spiky and the new growth is more spiky. There is one local to us where the top is smooth and the bottom which has been trimmed is spiked. Looks like 2 different trees!!

 

[lxskllr]

I'll look at mine again, but I'm pretty sure inside to out, top to bottom they are all uniformly spiny.

 

[Bermy]

How tall is it?

 

[lxskllr]

I have several. The tallest is about 40'

 

[TINYHULK]

That’s interesting, I have seen both leaf types here and coming from landscaping I have probably hedge many hundreds of hollys. Varying from a 300ft long hedge, 40ft tall coned shaped ones, and little boarder hedges of a property. I’ve seen them from a young stage produce both types of leaves. Makes me wonder how long that transfer takes and if hedging the shrub causes the change aswell

 

[lxskllr]

I looked at my tallest today, and some of the top leaves /may/ have had fewer spines, but I was relying on a silhouette, and my eyes aren't that great. I'd have to climb it and see it up close to know for sure, but they all definitely had spines. It was a male if that makes any difference.

 

[Treeaddict]

It seems like quite a few of you have seen the smoother leaf pattern.

Did you get your new glasses yet, John? Also, how do you sex a holly?

 

[lxskllr]

I did get new glasses, and they seem pretty good, but I still have trouble resolving fine detail at a distance. I may just be expecting too much from them. Looking through the 40x gun scope at work, I can see things pretty well :^D

Females get berries, and they're bright red right now. Males are plain.