AusBonsai

My neigbour friend gave me a small and untrained plant in a nice bonsai pot. The leaves look like those of mangrove trees and I took it for the pot but then found that it has some good branching so I wired it. My friend said it's name in Vietnamese is Cay Gua. Is it a fig or a mangrove?

Looks like a mangrove - we have mangroves backing onto our school, and I teach a unit on mangroves. I don't have any field guides here at home, but I could look it up for you. They are very hard to tell when so young.

Glenda

if it is a mangrove that came from the river banks they usually only survive in sandy water.

Thanks Glenda.
Simo, that plant has been doing fine in that pot for 2 years. It is a cutting from a bigger parent tree that is also in a bonsai pot for about 10 years. From visual spectation, the soil in the pot is ordinary potting mix with some degrees of organic compounds.

kvan64 wrote:Thanks Glenda.
Simo, that plant has been doing fine in that pot for 2 years. It is a cutting from a bigger parent tree that is also in a bonsai pot for about 10 years. From visual spectation, the soil in the pot is ordinary potting mix with some degrees of organic compounds.

Kvan, my best guess without consulting the field guide is that it is a grey mangrove. They grow in heavy mud and may grow pneumataphores (roots that will stick up into the air from under the mud). They like water, and would do well if the pot was in a dish (similar to swampies). They can also develop aerial roots, but not as prolific as figs. Keep this one under your hat, because they are protected and you need a licence to collect them. My PhD supervisor at the uni is a mangrove guru - if we can't identify it I can ask her (she won't ask where it came from). She does have a licence to collect, and has helped out my son's friend who is a botany student at James Cook University in Townsville and he collected a few - one is a rare cannonball mangrove, one is a grey.

If you have no other luck getting an ID, I will consult the field guide tomorrow.

Glenda

Kvan, I found the same field guide we have online at http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/reflib/fg- ... index.html . I still think it looks like a grey.

Glenda

good stuff, i think it will come about nicely. i had a mangrove once, but i did no keep it in water, it had little crabs living around the roots. yours seems to be going well i do agree that it could do with sitting in a bowl of water.

From banksia's [for sell] post, I think it is ficus Natalensis guys. What do you think?

viewtopic.php?f=102&t=5817

I'm with you Kvan. The leaf shape doesn't seem to match mangrove leaf shape - especially the 'Grey Mangrove', but it is identical to all the Natalensis I have - and the bark texture and colour are identical as well.

Thanks Tman. People said this type of ficus do grow aerial roots in the right conditions. Do your grow aerial roots? Any suggestion for this species?

gday DK

is there the usual white sap that oozes from figs when ya cut it??? if so then it will most likely be a fig.

i think you might be right DK, i would go fig over mangrove, this tree's leaf is quite distinctive and has some mangrove features but the elongation of the leaf then a slight rounded wider towards the tip to the point is different to the many pictures of the mangrove leaves i have searched up.

in saying that, I read somewhere (i cant remember where now, possibly a quote from a link brett put up maybe ) that figs have been cross polinating and there is many, many differing varieties and leaf shapes. with that many different variable it can be nearly impossible. the best way to tell is to cut a leaf of and see if it flows with the white sap, if it does then you can narrow it down to trees with this in mind.

(so yes, i think it is a very high possibilty that it could be fig!)

jamie


Edit - Im glad taffy put his hand up on the mangrove leaf shape being not the same, especially the grey..

It looks the same as my natal fig.
Rod...

The proof will be in the leafing habit - " All figs possess a white to yellowish sap (latex), some in copious quantities; the twig has paired stipules or a circular stipule scar if the stipules have fallen off; and the lateral veins at the base of the leaf are steep, forming a tighter angle with the midrib than the other lateral veins, a feature referred to as a "tri-veined".". (from wikipedia) Also, ficus shoots always have a new shoot inside the leading leaf as it unfurls - and I don't see any on these photos. Kvan, can you elaborate?

Glenda

It haven't got new shoots yet but I tried to break a leaf and it does have some latex sap oozing out. Obviously not a great deal like my ficus benjamine or willow leaf but.