Need help with an Identification - Bizarre

[Moose]

I located this very, very old croton growing at a old home in Coral Gables. I checked it out last week and returned this afternoon with my camera. It is a very large plant with the trunk having a diameter exceeding 5 inches. You can see how it is grown up over the roof line of the house.

Last week my thoughts were that I had found a monster Johanna Coppinger because there are leaves having small lobes at the base near the petiole. What further excited me was that there are multiple sports that I believed to be Yellow Johanna Coppinger. I checked and they are all connected to the same plant.

Today when photographing the plant, I start to doubt my ID because the spots on the leaves are rather large (see photos #2 & 3). Then I begin to wonder if this is Franklin Roosevelt with sports of Eleanor Roosevelt. If you enlarge photo #3, you will see at the upper portion of the image, leaves that looks like Reliant (Reliance), a sport of Johanna Coppinger.

I really am hoping that it is a Johanna Coppinger and therefore biased in my opinion. What do you croton forum members think?

 

[Moose]

The first photo is one of the sports. I think I counted a total of eleven on this croton. The next photo is to give some scale, the filtered sunlight does not help. I wanted to display the multiple sports found on the plant.

Whatever the ID, I found it bizarre that there are multiple sports that are very simular in their leaf shape and color patterns. It is probably a Franklin Roosevelt. What is your opinion?

 

[Moose]

This is Queen Victoria that was found growing just to the east of the previous discussed croton in post # 1 & 2. Stretched but still a very large old plant.

 

[Moose]

Located on the west side of the property, I found two Rex cultivars growing through some heavy vegetation. These look to have some nice coloring action going on for a Rex.

Some more Queen Victoria and Morti were also found growing in this western area. They were not noteworthy so I did not photograph.

 

[Moose]

Also found on the western edge of the property was some coloring up Stewartii. I know that some collectors may pooh-pooh the Stewartii, I happen to enjoy seeing a nicely colored up one. Photo #3 shows some of the heavy vegetation on the western edge of the property that all the different crotons have to contend with.

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

Ron, the first set looks like a real Golden Glow.

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

Keith told me there's such a thing as Yellow Golden Glow. I've never seen it but the first photo in the second set is what I imagine it would look like.

 

[koki]

Moose- when you first noticed it, did anyone in the car get wiplash? How long are the skid marks on the pavement? I agree with Ray, it looks like a very nice Golden Glow.

 

[Phil Stager]

Ron -
I'd bet that the parent plant is a Franklin Roosevelt which can have a good deal of variation in the size of the dots or spots. Based upon the few really big old crotons I've seen, the number of sports is not that unusual. One would expect the sports to be similar to the parent; this Coppinger plant shows this. What makes it unusual is the existence of other known Coppinger plants apparently from the same seed pod - FDR, Eleanor, Golden Glow, and Joanna Coppinger. This parent plant's genes just got twanked a bit later in life rather than in the seed pod.
Good to see you're out there finding these unusual crotons for us to enjoy.

 

[Moose]

Koki - believe it or not, I have driven past this home probably 50+ times. The house is set well back from the street. This house has not been lived in for a few years, there is golden pathos growing over some of the doors, some are boarded up.

I do not think it will be a problem of putting a couple of airlayers on it. Would we consider this to be a genetic tweener? What do you think Phil, worthy of some airlayers ?

 

[Phil Stager]

When in doubt, take cuttings or apply air layers (with owner's permission, of course).

 

[Moose]

Done, airlayers going on tomorrow!

 

[ScotTi]

Also found on the western edge of the property was some coloring up Stewartii. I know that some collectors may pooh-pooh the Stewartii, I happen to enjoy seeing a nicely colored up one. Photo #3 shows some of the heavy vegetation on the western edge of the property that all the different crotons have to contend with.

I like the Stewartii, need to find myself one or two.