Comments on: Native Americans at BIB’s Annual Bonsai Exhibit

By: wayne

wayne — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:15:54 +0000

Thanks for the clarification Jeff,
Though you might argue that a cork oak is a live oak, at least in the broad usage of live oak as any evergreen oak.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:09:49 +0000

The bottom oak is in fact a cork oak and not a Live oak. This was grown by seed and belongs to Mr. Oak himself.

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:21:37 +0000

Yeah. Things can get complicated. Humans and nature keep messing around and blurring lines between species. Guess I’ll have to get my hand on that book. Thanks for the heads up.

By: Ross Clark

Ross Clark — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:48:37 +0000

Actually, the juniper situation in California is even more complicated. The latest word on it is in Robt. P. Adams’ book on Junipers of the World: The genus Juniperus, 2nd edition (2008), available from Trafford Publishing in Vancouver (more cheaply there than from any other source, last time I checked).

By: wayne

wayne — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:16:27 +0000

Yeah. Apparently there are two subspecies of J. occidentalis. Thanks for the heads up.

By: John Callaway

John Callaway — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:40:37 +0000

Though both Juniperus occidentalis, Western Juniper and Sierra Juniper are not the same tree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_occidentalis

By: wayne

wayne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:53:39 +0000

So you don’t think that the suber in this post was collected? Sure looks like a collected tree, but then strange things can happen in S. Cal with the near eternal growing season and plenty of people who know how to grow material for bonsai.

By: Al Polito

Al Polito — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:40:48 +0000

From a distance, yes, agrifolias and subers look a lot alike. Especially the big subers. I’ve never seen them colonize the wilds though, although they could perhaps. There are just SO MANY agrifolias in California, so much so that if someone wanted an oak in their landscape, there was probably an agrifolia already there, plus they grow very quickly in their native environment—probably faster than suber. (Honestly, I just got my suber bonsai last summer from a bonsaiman in SoCal and I’m just learning about its care and habits.) Agrifolias from what I can tell tend to sprout suckers, branches, etc. more readily from old wood than do subers.

By: wayne

wayne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:26:42 +0000

Hi Al,

Thanks and I imagine there is some truth to the supply of collectible trees, especially if people are smart about it and don’t grab everything in site. Westerners are lucky when it comes to collecting, back here the pickings are much slimmer. If it weren’t for larch it’d almost be too slim to bother, at least here in northern Vermont.

I hoping you would set me straight on the cork oaks. I do know Q suber has been introduced to the US and has no doubt escaped into the wild, so why not? With photos it’s often hard to tell, but if it is a suber, then they look a lot like Calif live oaks.

By: Al Polito

Al Polito — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:35:41 +0000

Gorgeous trees.

Here in the Western U.S., I think we have a fairly inexhaustible supply of wild trees, but not all of it is collectible. For one thing we have more wild real estate than Japan. And also, some of our best collectors strike deep into the wilds to find the best stuff, rather than grabbing everything in sight.

I’m pretty sure the second oak is Quercus suber. I have one with very similar bark. The older agrifolias that develop bark like that, I am pretty sure, attain greater girth before doing so, and the fissures in agrifolia bark are much darker than that of suber.

Al Polito
crackpot horticulturalist and rank amateur bonsaiman