AusBonsai

Howdy,

I picked this walking Hadley the pooch last night. I beautiful tree in the neighbourhood - it seemed well suited to Bonsai - small leaves and covered in these white flowers like snow! The tree looked mature but was only say 15 feet high. Any ideas and if so, good to Bonsai or nada. Cheers in advance for your help.

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Not much to go on MJL Where's the bark and the overall shot so we can check the shape and habit.
The leaves appear to be compound so, although the individual leaflets look small the actual leaf is quite large.

My initial guess with so little data is White cedar - Melia azedarach. It should be about the right time of year for them to be flowering but buds are usually a little more pink/purple than the photos show so not 100% at this stage.

Thanks Neil-I’ll take a photo when Hadley and I go for a walk later. You’ve already taught me something ... while I have heard the term before- I just looked up compound leaf on the google-machine and I now better understand. Cheers, another photo will be posted later.


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Will wait for more photos.. but in the meantime.. it looks a lot like a ‘Flowering Ash’ - Fraxinus species. Common street tree up here and in flower at the moment, but not sure if it would grow down your way at all

Appears this is for sale in Melbourne.. so maybe..

https://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weed ... fithii.htm

I don’t know what’s going on with the leaf photo on that page. That doesn’t seem representative. Better to look at the leaves (and flowers) in the flower photo

Got it on the head Neil China Berry, the flowers aren’t open yet. Definitely not a Flowering Ash.
Cheers
Kirky

I’m not at all convinced it’s flowering ash, but I’m not convinced it’s white cedar either.. doesn’t white cedar have bipinnate leaves with more toothed margins on the leaflets?

Withdraw my previous guess of China Berry, may be a Himalayan Ash Fraxinus Griffiths. See what more photo’s will show.
Cheers
Kirky

There are a few flowers open in the photos Kirky which is why I said colour is not quite right. I think melia buds are actually pink on the outside too.
I don't know Fraxinus griffithii but that link Dave posted looks remarkably similar and on second thoughts he's probably correct about the bipinnate leaves. Well done Dave
Shots of the trunk and bark should give us a far better indication.

Thanks everyone. Based on the links above - it looks like Fraxinus Griffithii to me but any other thoughts or confirmation will be appreciated.


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Agree it is probably Fraxinus griffithii; have them flowering here in the streets presently.

Help from the www: this is the photo you get of the flowers of F. griffithii when you Google it. Pretty conclusive.

Thanks LLK and all. Pretty tree I reckon. Cutting removed; dipped in liquid hormone - into a pot and into dappled shade.... and if it survives, I might train cutting into pre-Bonsai ... wait a decade and who knows. [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]


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I agree with the ID - based on what I can see.
Now back to the other original question:

Any ideas and if so, good to Bonsai or nada.

You can use any trees for bonsai. Some are better suited than others.
Positives for this one: Tough - it is listed as a weed in QLD and NSW
Negatives: compound leaves can be difficult to match with small sized bonsai. Open habit may make it difficult to grow a compact, well ramified bonsai?

It obviously grows well from seed but I have no idea about other propagation methods for this species.