AusBonsai

Hi all
I bought this small tree ( on the RHS of the photo next to my miniature pomegranate) already potted into a Bonsai pot back in about June of last year. The person selling it did not know what species it was. It intially had 2 main branches but the LHS branch died on me. I went to the Dept of Agriculture here in Perth and they said they thought it was a dwarf lilly pilly (eugenia australe - Tiny Trev) - so I have been proceeding under that assumption. I decided to just let the tree grow and do nothing to it except water and fertilize to give it some strength and vigour and to also see how it would naturally develop before making any bonsai'ish decisions. In November it had "bushed" out and was looking very healthy. By 2 January 2010, it was covered in white flowers.] Since then, however, the tree has fruited and is now covered in blue fruit, whereas the only coloured lilly pilly fruit I had ever seen was pinkish and "Tiny Trev" also has red or mauve fruit. According to John Wrigley and Murray Faggs book "Australian Natives - Propogation, Cultivation and Use in Landscaping", the only lilly pilly I could find that has white flowers and blue fruit is is Syzygium oleosum/Eugenia cyanocarpa. Does anyone know if this sounds correct? Has anyone had experience with this particular sub-species, and generally, does anyone have any advice for me as to how I should go about developing it into a bonsai? It looks like it obviously lends itself to a slanting or semi-upight style
Thanks in advance

Idenification solved

By Pasquale,

I don't think it is a lilly pilly. It looks to me to be a myrtle (myrtus communis).

Hi Mashby,
I don't think it is a lilly pilly. It looks to me to be a myrtle (myrtus communis). They are used in bonsai but I don't have any experience with them.
Looks like you have the beginnings of a nice little tree.

pasquale wrote:Hi Mashby,
I don't think it is a lilly pilly. It looks to me to be a myrtle (myrtus communis).

Right on!!! Dwarf variety

Myrtle sounds pretty good, not too sure whether dwarf or not, they are pretty similar, Im going to have to label very carefully when I take cuttings of the dwarf, which currently has fruit too, looked a bit smaller than yours, but hard to scale exactly. Still it will be dwarfed by the time you finish with it!!! Theres a thread somewhere with my little myrtle (non dwarf). My dwarf is having garden time for a year or two until it is big enough to be interesting, and until I have offspring established so that I dont lose the variety completely.

Here in Brazil we have a very similar tree, is an American Eugenia var. Mattoso.
Who flowers and fruits from an early age.
It is a tree coming from the highlands of southern country.


http://bonsaistudio.forumvila.com/viewt ... =romagnole .
Shalom Luciano.
http://arte108.forumeiros.com/forum.htm
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/luc ... ef=profile

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll check a bit more and look into myrtles. After posting this thread I had another look at my tree and some more diagrams of various Syzigiums/Eugenia/Acmena, and my tree doesn't appear to have the growth habit of a lilly pilly. So, I'' do some more reesearch and let you know what I find out as well as showing the progression of the tree.
Thanks again.
Michael

Try searching on Google: Blueberry, Vaccynun Mirtillus, Blueberry or Mirtilo...
Shalom Luciano.
http://arte108.forumeiros.com/forum.htm
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/luc ... ef=profile

Here is the dwarf myrtle, fruit looks much smaller than yours, the leaves are the same as common Sweet myrtle.