Australian Bonsai Style- Fire Swept

[Mitchell]

A few more.

[dyson]

Really cool posts guys..
The epicormic growth on Australian trees is definately unique and a reflection of the evolution of Australian trees along side ever changing fire regimes (ie. aboriginal burning, lack of european land management- increased biomass through fire suppression resulting in higher intensity fires). One of my lecturers at Monash uni (born in england) described that the first thing he noticed about Australian natives were the 'droopy', vertically hanging leaves which have adapted to minimise surface area exposed to harsh solar radiation. Also the waxy, tough nature of the leaves which have adapted to increase water use efficiency. When I think about an Australian native, I often imagine the vertical leaves..very unique!
Dyson

[Mitchell]

Thanks for that Dyson!

You sound very knowledgeable on such subjects, what exactly to you lecture on.? I'm interested.
feel free to contribute anymore of your thoughts, they would be valuable.

[dyson]

Hey mitchell,
I'm in my second year of Environmental science, majoring in plant sciences, minoring in geography..
Unfortunately I havn't learnt a great deal which can help me with growing bonsai.. but atleast I can contribute some random bits of information regarding adaptations of plants!!
Hopefully when I get deeper into my course some information might come in handy!
All the best,
Dyson

[Petra]

Im a fan of Aus natives too. With many experiments i found them the easiest to work with. But who cares, that our native bonsai arent 300 or more years old. Our country isnt as old as other 's either.Do they have the extremes in which our bush has to cope with.Just by one glance ,you instantly know what sort of enviroment the tree lives .
I know some of our rainforests contain ancheint trees, maybe if we took a layering from one of those, we could come close, hey. Which brings me to minds of another question i once asked . (How old is a tree when its been layered to start with.)
I have said this one time before also, our natives have a somewhat gothic look about them. Take a look at the bush's view
in a nights light, it screams Goth style. Why not call that, Australian style.

Jm 2cs worth.

[Neha012]

keep it up nice style...

[Mitchell]

Thanks Neha, will do, though as one of the only advocates of this "style" i encourage you and others to give it a go.

I'm off to offer another installment of this saga. I have been endorsing this style with my Mel, and their are some great shots of some flammage.

Here's the link. viewtopic.php?f=104&t=6869&p=81320&hili ... uca#p81320

I'm now inspired to attack it again, who knows how harsh this burn is going to be. So far, she has gone through a grass fire, then and hard burn which removed many substantial branches. It has now burst back far more aggressively than with a prune.

What next? Branches are forming secondaries, life is looking good for an imposing massive bonsai, what happens if another fire front comes through and it gets swept again?
This plant was removed from the ground less than 4 months ago and is now onto it's thrid flame attack. Truley remarkable as far as I am concerned. I do whole heartedly feel, if I had done this work with a branch cutter, then plant would be dead by now. I am really taken back from the instantaneous response from fire.

As far as I can tell. Lick of fire / sub-dermal burn (flash burn of bark not heartwood or cambrium) = bud burst.