Which is which????

[Tamnewbie]

Hi All, I have 2 Liquid Amber trees, both about 60cm tall, but one was marked "Liquid Amber" and the other one "Chinese Liquid Amber...semi-evergreen" when i bought them, but stupidly when repotting, I've lost the tags so don't know which is which!! They both lost all leaves over winter and are now covered in new growth. One with larger 3 point leaves, dark grey bark with beige spots, and the other has smaller leaves with 5 to 7 points and light brown bark. Can you tell me which is which please. Google hasn't helped!!. Thank you.

[kcpoole]

can you post a phot of the leaves?

Ken

[Andrew Legg]

Google is your friend! Chinese is the three lobed leaf. 5-Lobed leaf is the standard.

[dennismc]

Andrew is correct with the identification. There are 2 Asian species which can be hard to tell apart but the Asian one usually found in Oz has a very strong aroma of Friars Balsam the old ointment. Quite distinctive.

While they are similar in growth and style the Asian generally produces better Autumn colour than the American. In my backyard it also colours later and holds the colour for much longer in winter. And I just remembered its new growth is purple in colour.

Dennis Mc

[Tamnewbie]

Thank you all very much. Yes I had forgotten to mention the purple new leaves and it's growth is MUCH faster than the other one...have just found (yes I went out to smell the leaves!!) some wire marks on the new leader which I did less than a week ago!! I've now labeled them again. Andrew, what species do you have over there? and I love your "favourite species"....mine too. Thank you all again.