hello .. can anyone tell me why the discoloration on the leaves of this osmanthus might be occurring .. there are just a few 'spots' of leaves like this throughout the plant .. thanks ..
Virus-like conditions such as this can have more than one cause. Without laboratory procedures likely impossible to be sure, unless there happens to be a well-known condition that an expert can recognize just from its appearance. Even then an assumption is being made based on specialized knowledge and experience.
I have seen this occur regularly throughout Vancouver, the soil conditions, stress, lack of nutrients may be a part of the problem. Is the general health of your plant OK? If it is, humour yourself with a variegated specimen, albeit a far cry from the truth.
the plant, overall, is in pretty good shape .. mainly, the leaves are green, and it flowers beautifully .. it gets mulched once, or twice a year .. it lives in a half barrel, and has for several years ..
I would plant it in the ground. Or continue to prune for its potting size.... which of course means more work and worry for you.
Seems plenty of the leaves in that photo are a bit odd. Other then the variegated colouring there seems to be some deformed leaves with rounded and missing edges. Some are wilted and slightly curling, some splitting, looks kinda abiotic or natural from something the plant roots just don't like. I wouldn't think it is anything to serious, your plant looks lush green! And these are just some lower leaves? I wonder if for some reason the chlorophyll is breaking down on the tissue in that area or if it is just producing some old variegated genes from long ago. Not sure on that. Have a great day,, Jim.
hey, jim .. yes, the plant, overall, seems pretty happy, despite being in the half barrel .. the discolouration in the leaves doesn't seem to me to be anything more than that .. the idea of the chlorophyll breaking down got me thinking .. perhaps .. and maybe that's just fine .. the leaves themselves don't seem to be adversely affected .. i may just watch it for awhile longer and see if more leaves start turning .. as far as my thought of removing the discoloured leaves, i believe my mind related it to variegated plants, and having to remove the stronger, non-variegated leaves in order to keep the variegated dominant .. so many speculations ..
