7) fr 
SPA) YU 4, 
ie Reeves 
* Grapevine 
VOL. 3 
MAPLE LEAF FOREVER? 
IT’S DIFFERENT! 
Long, narrow, pendulous evergreen leaves 
foliate this Maple, ACER OBLONGUM, 
and about the only outstanding feature 
remininscent of eastern Maples is the char- 
acteristic winged seed. And a good thing, 
too, for Maples are not outstanding suc- 
cesses as Southern California trees. How- 
ever, our plant of the month is a notable 
exception to the poor record of its family 
here, for it grows with fair rapidity into a 
graceful tree suitable for the average home 
garden which can afford it some protec- 
tion from heavy winds. 
Requiring somewhat less pruning than 
-mostManles and apparently not as trou- 
bled by borers, A. oblongum has gently 
drooping leaves, bronzy-tinged when new, 
which remain on the tree year-round, the 
new replacing the old so gradually and 
continually as to keep the tree fully green. 
Planted from five gallon cans ($5), it will 
make a 20-foot tree in five years, a grace- 
ful addition to the traditional garden where 
an attractive tree of small proportion is 
desired. 
APRIL, 1953 _ 
NO. 12 
FICKLE-PHYLLA 
PSEUDOPANAX II 
We don't know how we got into this 
corner but we're beginning to think our 
April rare plant is so rare no one is quite 
sure what it is! It started out to be PSEU- 
DOPANAX FEROX, that is, the seed was 
thus identified when dispatched to us. The 
resultant crop, however, now some two 
years old, is developing some very confus- 
ing characteristics. We checked pretty 
caretully the descriptions supplied by ex- 
perts from the land of the plants’ origin. 
After reading many pages on this genus, 
Pseudopanax that is, one fact emerges 
conspicuously: these plants are extremely 
variable in foliage, one has to practically 
live with any given plant for a decade or 
two while it undergoes as many as six 
complete leaf changes, to be even in the 
running when it comes to the final guess. 
We suspect that some of the formal horti- 
cultural authors were just as much con- 
founded as we; they played it safe and 
just dismissed the whole thing as unim- 
portant. 
Well, anyway, with this fascinating back- 
ground we commend to your attention 
another fine New Zealand Aralia, with its 
(Continued on inside page) 
