AusBonsai

Hi Folks,

I seem to have a very rare case of 'fasciation' occurring on my swamp cypress. I bought it during winter/early spring before shoots were shown and it seemed like it was a normal tree. Over the summer, it seemed to have a very odd looking apex growth, which I left as I wanted to see what would happen. A couple weeks ago, it started sprouting. It looks like this:
https://imgur.com/a/8m9Ej

I was recommended to contact the Australian National Botanic Gardens to see if this can be propagated as this is rare in any conifer species.

Has anyone seen anything similar or know anything about fasciations with swampys or conifers in general and if there's a research facility that would love this?

Wow! That is strangely beautiful, and beautifully strange!!!!

I can't access the photos but assume it is what you say.
Don't know about any research facilities but most specialist nurseries would probably be interested in getting hold of a possible new variety. 'Witches Broom' growth on conifers is how we get many of the new, dwarf varieties of tree if it can be grafted or grown as cuttings. Swampies root reasonably easily so you should be able to grow some from cuttings taken from the altered shoots.

I can’t see your photo

The photo

Cool!!!!!

Yep, that's fasciation alright.
What would you do with a tree that looked like that?

I have a Japanese black pine in the garden that has some fasciation on some shoots but plenty of growth is also normal so this does not seem to be systemic.

Ah sorry I left it as an imgur link. I'll update the post to as well but thanks melbrack for uploading!

I'm not sure about styling, this is the first season I've had this tree and it seemed like an anomaly so I thought I'd share and see if this was common or not.
I was just going to air-layer that part next year and chop the tree down lower after a couple seasons of growing, it's not gigantic but I would like to have this one grow a little fatter before I seriously start styling it.

OK ...wait.......think I've just learnt something new.....yep .......something definitely just happened.
Fascinating fasciation!
Thanks for sharing.