who cares.. its really cool .. lol... a vast majority of the time.. leaf damage is not all that a big deal ... and they are usually specific to a given plant ... meaning they wont spread all around.. if just left ... lets see if that ends up being supported by rhiz .... if im wrong.. im wrong ... ken

The new growth is called a basal Keiki. In time you you will be able to separate it from the mother plant and have a bonus plant.

It looks like sunburn to me, when it gets crazy hot and humid I find a lot of my plants dont use as much water as I thought, so watch that you dont over water.

Thanks guys. I can post a picture of the root flare when I get home, Ken. As for background: I bought the tree online 3-4 years ago (I know, online trees are not recommended by many but I was not as cautious then as now) and it arrived bare root stock. I planted it in the same way and with the same soil as I've planted many other deciduous trees that have done fine. The tree has grown quite a bit since then. The trunk is 2x or 3x the diameter of when it arrived and it both bloomed and flushed abundantly each spring (until this year). It didn't get too much TALLER than its original size because the morons who sell trees online cut the top off their trees before mailing them to promote branching and/or fit it in the postage packaging. This stunted its vertical development. It is planted between a large mature Scott's pine and some quaking aspens. I would often water it with the garden hose on the hottest/driest of summer days, but left its water needs to nature during the wetter spring/fall seasons. I wonder if it is just an intense case of frost crack?