Broadwater Fig and water swept trees

[Ash]

My wife and I went for a walk and swim at Broadwater NW of Ingham and I am posting some pictures showing lovely trees for inspiration. One of my particular favourite trees there is the Broadwater Fig. It is a Ficus albipila with a very large buttress and green trunk. Thats me for scale.

Broadwater Fig.jpg

Along Broadwater Creek are many beautiful rheophytic trees such as Tristaniopsis exiliflora and Xanthostemon chrysanthus. Every year they are swept by the floods, pounded by tumbling rocks and subject to the stress of beach towels and discarded garments hanging from their branches.

Rheophyte Xanthostemon.jpg

Many of them form waterswept rafts where their branches are pushed back to the rocks and take root. This Tristaniopsis exiliflora had a long raft that was shaped like a corkscrew. I wondered if a vortex in the floodwater caused by its boulder had trained it into a corkscrew.

Tristaniopsis exiliflora raft.jpg

Shari:

Natural shari.jpg

Sinuous style:

Sinuous style.jpg

Ash

[Aussie_Bonsai]

that fig is crazy!!!!!

[Jerry Meislik]

That is one awesome Ficus. How large are its leaves? Bonsai-able?
Jerry

[Ash]

Jerry I am afraid leaves of Ficus albipila are BIG - or as we say in Townsville Needle Too Wrong.

Some fifteen years ago we were visited by a Japanese master to give demonstrations and critique trees. Upon seeing a radiata pine bonsai and mistkaing it for a black pine he commented by saying 'needle too wrong' instead of 'needle to long' . The owner was mortified but we all laughed our heads off .

Ash

[MattA]

Sinuous style

That Tristaniopsis is wild.... I had to look up rheophyte, the description I could find was in reference to water plants. Does this only occur in water courses or would it grow away from that environment as well?

Matt

[Dumper]

dont like snake.............

nice wild fig

[Pup]

Love the snake it is beautiful. As are the trees, the natives arent bad either.
Thanks for showing them to us Ash.

Pup

[bodhidharma]

Very awe inspiring. Mother Nature at her most awesomeness

[Ash]

Sorry- didn't have a pic looking up- this is the Broadwater fig looking up into the canopy. Adjacent tree was Ficus hispida with little Fig parrots feeding on figs emerging directly from the trunk. Other figs in the same place were F. destruens, F, drupacea, F. obliqua, F. superba, F. virens, F. congesta and F. opposita so it is Fig parrot heaven.

Broadwater fig top.jpg

Matt I may not be using rheophyte correctly. I checked the internet definition. To me rheophyte is like saying lithophyte or epiphyte. It refers to the placement of the individual plant rather than the species. Yes these species (pendas) can be grown away from creeks but that is where they are most common 'in the wild'.

Ash

[Jerry Meislik]

Ash,
with so many figs and parrots in this one area I need to put this on my bucket list of places to see before I cash in my chips.
Keep showing us these amazing trees.
Jerry
PS do you have any idea of how to replicate those finned surface roots in a bonsai? That feature would be fantastic to copy.

[mickster]

Hi Ash,came across the pics of your white fig and wondered what the leaf size was like as I have a young one here I'm feeding up?Cheers Mick

[Ash]

Mick- Some of these large figs have very large leaves but still some can reduce a good deal. For F. virens the leaves are naturally between 10 and 20 cm long on my seedlings. They get smaller as the tree gets older. I have had F. virens leaves down to about 4 cm by regular trimming and defoliation however it only takes one unchecked flush of growth to take it back to a large size. The attractiong is the rapid grow, trunk and root colour and texture and the red new leaves. I am guessing Ficus albipila would have the same leaf problems but on a larger scale. I have never obtained seed or a plant of this species so I have no firsthand experience with it. If you do use these species I think a big bonsai- maybe 10 x the final leaf size is necessary to creat the right illusion.

Jerry- I have not yet seen this type of beautiful buttress accurately replicated in bonsai and have decided that it needs some experimentation to work out how to do it. It realy is the fig frontier isn't it?

I have had a couple of ideas on the subject- perhaps female moulds might work, allow the tree to grow up in a mould and then remove the moulds. I am not sure if the tree would stick to the mould though. Also I have wondered if growing an aerial root down the top of another and letting it fuse, then doing it again, and again, and again and letting them fuse might work. Another idea was lining the primary branches up with the surface roots directly. And another fusing trunks (like Tropical Bonsai Gallery by Budi Sulistyo page 187)

Have you ever seen any bonsai fig with this fluted or plank like buttress in your travels Jerry?

cheers
Ash

[alpineart]

Hi Ash , nothing like Mother Nature to inspire and motivate a bloke into getting his shari together and training a few plants .Nice to see these tree's in there natural state .Thanks for posting them .Cheers Alpineart

[MattA]

Matt I may not be using rheophyte correctly. I checked the internet definition. To me rheophyte is like saying lithophyte or epiphyte. It refers to the placement of the individual plant rather than the species. Yes these species (pendas) can be grown away from creeks but that is where they are most common 'in the wild'.

Hey Ash,

I get where your coming from now and it fits perfectly... I had just never heard the term before

I looked at some advanced water gums yesterday, Ray Nesci had a few at newcastle show (sorry I dont know the species) and its got me motivated to try some. Amazing ramification and leaf reduction can be achieved with constant pinching.

Keep the pics coming I am going to need all the insperation I can get!

Matt

[Jerry Meislik]

Ash,
I have seen root buttresses of similar configuration Some are figs but some are other species with similar root structures.
Your ideas on creating this in a bonsai situation are interesting. Grafting aerials down may the fastest way to go about it.
Jerry