Liquidambar - not Japanese maple?

[wal]

Could this be a Japanese maple? Got her today for $5 and the guy i got her from seem totally sure its a Japanese maple what you guys think?

Regards
Wal

[shibui]

Liquidamber I'd say.
Japanese maple leaves are smaller and in pairs (opposite) on the stem.

[wal]

Damm ok still must have been a good score right?

[shibui]

$5 for a liquidamber this size is probably about right. Very fast growing and very easy to grow.
Liquidamber can make good bonsai - very good autumn colour, much tougher than Japanese maple and easier to manage. Drawback is the larger leaves but they will reduce in size when you get good ramification.

I would not go back to someone selling plants who does not know the difference between liquidamber and Japanese maple though

[melbrackstone]

agree with everything shibui has said. You'll get a much stronger tree with liquidamber in Brissy than with Japanese Maple anyway...

[wal]

I fully understand now what you ment

It clearly does have Alternate branches

Thanks for all the help

[wal]

Least i have a tiny bit of taper now lmao

Regards
Wal

[Beano]

You have reverse taper. Is that a graft?

[wal]

Wtf are you telling me its usless for bonsai:( rather broken now "sigh"

Regards
Wal

[Beano]

Nothing is useless, I'm speculating off one image. Plus it was $5, bargain. It looks like a bulge which is above a narrower base. Just stick it in a huge pot and fatten it up, then you can ground layer it and get a new base at the bulge if it's not a graft, or closer to the bulge if it is a grafted tree. It'll still be beautiful!

[wal]

Nothing is useless, I'm speculating off one image. Plus it was $5, bargain. It looks like a bulge which is above a narrower base. Just stick it in a huge pot and fatten it up, then you can ground layer it and get a new base at the bulge if it's not a graft, or closer to the bulge if it is a grafted tree. It'll still be beautiful!

U are prob right i went and asked and he said he does do some grafting....

I have no idea about ground layering though

Regards
Wal

[wal]

Uno im not so sure it is... looks more like root going down on an angle to my n00b eye hmm ?

Regards
Wal

[Max]

Looks like you have another root over rock coming your way

[wal]

Looks like you have another root over rock coming your way

I dont even have one root over rock yet

Regards
Wal

[shibui]

Reverse taper is where you have a thicker area above a thinner part of trunk or branch. Our minds expect a tree to be widest near the ground and get gradually thinner all the way to the top. Reverse taper can upset our unconscious feeling of what is right and proper so we try to avoid it in bonsai.
Your tree is just starting to develop reverse taper where those branches come from. Several branches from one place on the trunk can cause the trunk to swell up and develop reverse taper. My advice is to cut off 2 of those low branches to stop it developing further.
I doubt liquidamber would be grafted. They are so easy to grow from cuttings it would be unusual for someone to graft. More likely to be a root cutting which often look like this and would also explain the reverse taper.

It looks like there is another small tree growing from a spare root beside the main tree. you could separate them in winter and have 2 trees.