sarahsflowers, (I want to find a symbol of or a metaphor for "You don't necessarily have to be like your parents".) In my opinion you are trying to establish a genetic-type example of a behavior-type relationship or absence of it; and I am unsure that it can be done convincingly. However, 'sporting' or 'bud sporting' may provide your example. A close look at a hedge of variegated hibiscus is sure to provide one or two examples of a shoot sporting green. But even this can be viewed as the plant reverting to its original coloration. I have been told that the camellia is quite rewarding in its ability to sport blooms of a different color but I have no first hand experience of this. The more I think of it, the more I feel that the laws and postulates of Genetics tend to support more the statement that "the apple does not fall far from the tree".

Nope, it is not a PCI. I grow many of them and the foliage is completely different. The iris-species group experts (with help from the sib-rob experts) have proclaimed this to be a straight, if dwarf form, of i. siberica. Apparantly it fits the wild species form to a T. Having only ever seen garden hybrids, this would explain my confusion. There was something about a speciel set of recessive genes removing pigment from the petals of this particular variety (which is not an unknown one!) as well, but I don't always follow all that genetics info. Thanks for all the input! =) Mike

This was taken on Dec 29th 2009. I hope who ever cares for it will protect it. Otherwise the prognosis is not good. It was 30 degrees at St Augustine Airport this morning and 29 in NW St. Johns County at my house. Today's max was 44. 32 now at post time. I wish I can post the pic directly but can't seem to get it to cooperate. Any help or suggestions will be appriciated. Here is a link that might be useful:

I am just curious how many have cut a palm to look at the 'rings' and try to age it that way? Several problems with this technique, main one being palms are monocots and do not grow rings. If you have ever cut a palm you will just see a lot of dots pretty evenly spaced from center to edge. These are the plants vascular bundles. But you will see no rings as monocots do not produce diameter that way, pushing the phloem and xylem to the outer few inches as dicot trees will do. Also, once a palm trunk grows to its adult girth, it does not grow wider from then on (only grows from the top meristem). So a palm that has lets say 5 feet of trunk may have exactly the same diameter when it has 150 feet of trunk. Palms also tend to grow at a variety of speeds depending upon the conditions... so a king palm that is 10' tall in California might be 15 years old, while one grown in Hawaii that tall might be 5 years old. ONce you are familiar with how fast certain species tend to grow in your climate, you can try to guess, but there is no other way I know to detect age in a palm.