Sorry for the delay in the updates. There was no way to edit my original post. So here is a new one. I like to thank all that have pointed out how I have somewhat of a rare tree. After some comments of who to reach out, I’ve sent emails two a bunch of people in two different departments at UC Davis.
I did get some responses but mainly getting reference to Zane Moore and Judy Jernstedt. Zane (with assistance of Judys) actually did a PhD thesis on Albino Redwoods in 2016.
Here is a link to a short article Zane wrote:
https://sempervirens.org/news/ghost-redwoods-solving-the-albino-redwoods-mystery/
After a few emails back and forth with Zane, I expressed my original concerns of some dead limbs from the main and if the Albino could be the cause by drinking too much water. Here is his response (some personal response redacted):
Thanks so much for all the information.
What I would say is the way you’re trimming it is all you can do, basically. It will keep resprouting all the time, so you may just decide to keep trimming it back.
I would say that while it does use water and more than the green branches, given the size of the tree it probably makes a small difference in saving water but not much.
It definitely is one of the larger redwoods in the area that I’m aware of. It also looks like it splits higher up into two large trunks. It’s an awesome tree!
I am not sure what soils are like in your town and whether there are heavy metals there. I will say that albino redwoods are relatively common in your town, so I’m not surprised. Importantly, the albino mutation was not caused by the heavy metals but may respond more positively to heavy metals compared to the normal green needles.
To me, it sounds like you want to keep trimming the sprouts as you have been. I would say go for it! There is no real way to stop it from sprouting, so it will keep doing this a lot. As for the other dead branches higher up, the more death you start seeing the more important it might be to water it. It’ll be very hard for this tree to die unless you completely stop watering it. But there will be a few years of real awful looking dying branches before the entire tree dies.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks again for sharing this—it made my day to learn about it!
Thanks,
Zane
TL;DR – Reached out to UC Davis, response: awesome tree, trim Kate Bush, keep doing no what you’re doing.
Also contacted UC Berkeley, but no response.
by sdragon2160
2 Comments
Thanks for the update! Lucky you having such a cool tree!
>Zane (with assistance of Judys) actually did a PhD thesis on Albino Redwoods in 2016.
It’s worth noting that Moore was 22 and just starting his post-grad studies in 2016 when his hypothesis about albino leaves helping to store heavy metals blew up in pop science communication. [His actual PhD dissertation](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6r103839) was published last year on the genetic differences between branches of redwoods due to accumulation of somatic mutations, and didn’t touch on redwood albinism at all. As far as I’ve been able to find, there hasn’t actually been any published evidence supporting (or disproving, to be fair) Moore’s hypothesis, nor can I find anything else he’s written about it since then.
From the actual evidence we have, all we can say is that seemingly due to poorly-functioning stomata, albino redwood leaves pass through more water, and thus naturally end up with more of whatever solutes are found in the local groundwater. Nothing indicates that this has any impact on non-albino portions of the tree.