Apparently it is quite normal for the Tri to disappear into a single leaf form. Years ago I had trident seedlings popping up everywhere in the back yard but I could not work out where they where coming from. After finding the seeds on this tree I realised this was it

Also I noticed some of the inner leaves had a slight trident form to them.
The next year the slight trident form in the leaves was at the tips of the branches.
trident.jpg
As you can see the seedlings growing wild underneath it have the normal trident leaf!
triseed.jpg
I thought it must have been a result of a grafted tree and the seeds where coming out normal. Until I learnt that grafting does not really affect the growth habit of the Scion. Then it was suggested that it was a hybrid which sounded feasible so I sent samples of the parent and the seedlings off to the botanical garden for identification.
Result came back as normal trident

With the explanation that this is a normal characteristic of the Trident Maple (sorry Joel I should be using the scientific name here at least

) Acer buergerianum. I have found one picture with google of a trident doing the same.
Over the next few years I watched the trident revert back to tri lobed leaf more and more each year. Maybe it is a seasonal thing. It was a neighbor's tree and I helped him remove it last spring as the roots had hit the pool base and it was distorting the fence. Also when I spied some leaf curl in it I suspected it was raining the Fungus down on my collection
I will miss all the seeds it gave me

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It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.