see link ...

white things die.. no chlorophyll to convert sun to energy ...

so w/o knowing another thing about this tree.. it HAS TO green up ...

in other words.. a transitory color phase ...

i would be mystified if told otherwise ... but its very early in the morning.. lol

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

That IS 'Ukigumo'. Grown in heavy shade, the tree does turn very pale but you can still see signs of the green variegation (which tends to be minimal anyway) and some of the pinkish new growth. We had a large specimen at one of the nurseries I worked at growing under cover in a shade house and it looked exactly like that.

With that light a pigmentation, the tree grows quite slowly and not nearly as dense as one that displays more chlorophyll.

Agree with gardengal. There is huge variation in this tree depending on how much sunlight it receives.