How to style a Ficus coronata - Sandpaper fig

[Rory]

Ficus coronata - Sandpaper fig

I am curious, as the only pictures I've managed to find of these in the wild, is that they do not grow at all like a broom style PJ or MB fig, but seem to grow tall and relatively slender. Is this the case?

Does anyone know what they usually look like as a full grown tree?

I know nothing about this species' natural growth, but I have been trying my hand at them. In preparation for styling, I'm just wondering if many people on here might have pictures of them growing in the wild by any chance?

[dansai]

All the ones I've seen are are short and slender with sparse branching. They grow naturally near me as more an understorey tree. All you see is usually the trunk. They come up naturally in my pots but I haven't trained any as yet.

[boom64]

Hi Rory ,I have a clump of Sandpapers growing in a drainage channel behind my house. Not really natural but pretty close. They are always in wet conditions, even in summer. Tall lanky trees with sparse foliage. There are a few curious branches that have extremely tight growth .They are a lot lighter in colour and are fully exposed to the sun. A branch of the same tree beside it will have standard sparse larger size leaves. STRANGE I will take some cuttings come spring. Hope this makes sense . Cheers John.


PS I rotated the two pictures on my computer but when I upload it reverts back to the original. Sorry about every ones soar neck

[treeman]

Years ago I had an idea about doing a strangler fig thing. My idea was to use some kind of soft easily rotted wood or even carve some polystyrene and train a number of figs up it, then when well established and fused, remove the host. I never got round to trying it.
Don't know if this would work with the sandpaper figs?

[literati79]

Hi Rory. I have one that I am training into informal upright style. It's only a stump with shoots currently. I will put up some pictures when it develops a bit. The tree was in a 45 litre bag, reduced the root ball by about 90% and it is shooting away happily. The top was pretty much removed at the same time. These guys seem tough!!! Leaf reduction seems do-able. I have seen a few nice ones on a google image search I am sure??? There is a few nice fat ones out at Bonsai World. I will no doubt end up buying one if someone doesn't beat me too it.

I reckon they are definitely worth a go.

[Rory]

Hi Rory. I have one that I am training into informal upright style. It's only a stump with shoots currently. I will put up some pictures when it develops a bit. The tree was in a 45 litre bag, reduced the root ball by about 90% and it is shooting away happily. The top was pretty much removed at the same time. These guys seem tough!!! Leaf reduction seems do-able. I have seen a few nice ones on a google image search I am sure??? There is a few nice fat ones out at Bonsai World. I will no doubt end up buying one if someone doesn't beat me too it.

I reckon they are definitely worth a go.

Oh cool. Yes, this is also where I purchased mine from. I originally had a few of these about 18 years ago that I was growing into a Moreton bay sumo style, which I think in retrospect may have been the wrong style for its natural growth. Okay, I mean as in I prefer to grow it like it grows naturally in an open area. But they perished a long, long time ago, in a house far, far away. Along with all my other trees.

Hi Rory ,I have a clump of Sandpapers growing in a drainage channel behind my house. Not really natural but pretty close. They are always in wet conditions, even in summer. Tall lanky trees with sparse foliage. There are a few curious branches that have extremely tight growth .They are a lot lighter in colour and are fully exposed to the sun. A branch of the same tree beside it will have standard sparse larger size leaves. STRANGE I will take some cuttings come spring. Hope this makes sense . Cheers John.


PS I rotated the two pictures on my computer but when I upload it reverts back to the original. Sorry about every ones soar neck

Thank you very much for the effort to photograph the trees. I appreciate it. As Ken had pointed out earlier on a thread about Casuarina trees in dense situations, (they will shoot upwards with long straggly growth to reach the light), so I'm not so sure if this is a representation of how the tree will grow as a stand alone tree. But thank you kindly for the pictures of the trees growing in a crowded situation.

I am very curious to see a full grown tree standing out on its own.

Years ago I had an idea about doing a strangler fig thing. My idea was to use some kind of soft easily rotted wood or even carve some polystyrene and train a number of figs up it, then when well established and fused, remove the host. I never got round to trying it.
Don't know if this would work with the sandpaper figs?

Yeah, that would be an interesting project, but I wouldn't bother doing it with this species. I have many natural climbers in my backyard, and I hate them with a passion. Though... if you leave them for a few weeks, they often anchor the branches of your trees downwards. ie... they grow so fast and grab hold of branches then grow onto these, and as they thicken quite quickly, their weight very quickly begins to weigh down the host branches.

[literati79]

I could tell a similar story of different places and lost trees...maybe another time.

Back to your original questions though. From what I can tell from what I have seen them growing naturally they aren't really much of a "tree" at all, more of a straggling, open, small shrub, nothing like a PJF or MBF etc. unfortunately.

I am aiming for a fairly natural looking informal upright, rather than the more natural appearance since I've never seen an good one in tree from naturally. They seem to grow in shady, heavily vegetated creek banks where they compete for space and light.

[Rory]

From what I can tell from what I have seen them growing naturally they aren't really much of a "tree" at all, more of a straggling, open, small shrub, nothing like a PJF or MBF etc. unfortunately.

I am aiming for a fairly natural looking informal upright, rather than the more natural appearance since I've never seen an good one in tree from naturally.

I would tend to kindly disagree with these comments, as I have been told it is quite a lovely tree on its own. I think as a community we need to look beyond the perceived notion that a tree in its natural environment is not a tree worth pursuing because it doesn't have traits like a commonly used genus. But again, this is just my opinion.

Here is a sample of one picture I found of it growing in the open from wikipedia.

Ficus_coronata_tree.jpg

[dansai]

I don't think Ficus coronata is a common tree to see on its own. It's known as the Creek Sandpaper Fig as it grows along creeks and all the ones I have seen are like literati's picture or taller trees on the edge of rainforest. Here they come up in my shade house and larger grow pots with larger trees in them or in the shady wet areas of my property. The drier areas and open areas have none. Not to say they don't, but there is a closely related species Ficus fraseri which grows in more open drier areas.

According to A.G.Floyd Ficus coronata is a

bushy tree attaining a height of 15m and a stem diameter of 20cm ....... Along the creeks or stream both in rainforest and open country.

whereas Ficus fareseri is a

tree attaining a height of 35m and a stem diameter of 60cm. Often semi-deciduous ..... scattered throng the forest and not mainly along streams

I could only find these images of Ficus fraseri

Young Ficus fraseri.jpg

Older Ficus fraseri.jpg

You could try a forest planting and try and replicate literati's images with slender trunks and a fine tracery of branches?

Or a single tree could be styled more slender and sparse as opposed to more solid trunk and heavy canopy as in other ficus.

Whatever you do, keep as posted please. As i said, I have them coming up all the time but haven't trained any yet. Lost a few young ones that I potted up from under watering but I'm keen to get some growing and would like to do something interesting with them than a standardised approach. I'ld love to be able to create the uneven thickening and muscling you can see starting on the second pic above. And I'll keep a look out around here for some good specimens.

[Dyll182]

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[Dyll182]

DSC03698.jpg

this photo can be confusing but the leaves you see are of another plant that the fig has invaded.

DSC03701.jpg

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They grow well in the hunter valley and are a small under storey fig, which can survive in low light. There are so many growing around the yard invading other pots that I can experiment with them without feeling bad. Foliage is quite sparse on the tree, but they are very resilient and shoot back aggressively if cut back hard. Good tree just to have in the yard as the figs are one of the best tasting of any Aussie fig native. I would love to see this as a root over rock bonsai, the dark bark would look nice on an opaque rock.