Goldfish Tail Camellia. Upon first seeing this cultivar in Japan, I was totally gobsmacked! The plants were mere rooted cuttings, but each leaf had a green trumpet-shaped "appendage" hanging from the underside of the midrib of each leaf. We had been growing for years a leaf-form which we were calling (whether correct or not, I'm not sure) Camellia japonica quercifolia 'Kungyoba-tsubaki' which had a flared fish-tail-like leaf tip to its leaves and every ten or twelve leaves, it would produce a leaf similar to 'Bonten'. One of these is shown on the last picture. But with 'Bonten', practically every leaf has this unusual appendage under each leaf. It is truly intriguing to any camellia fancier. The flower is a simple single white with yellow stamens. This is truly one of those Japanese mysteries that so enraptures one about this mysterious horticultural paradise called "The Land of the Rising Sun".
Zones 7-9.
