This Manzanita is growing on a granite ledge on a rise just before you drop down into Yosemite valley. The others shown below are from the same general area. All the photos were taken by Amy Palmer, during a Sierra hiking and tree identification trip that Amy and I just returned from.

Pervasive, beautiful, and seemingly perfect for bonsai
Whenever I go into the California Coast range or the Sierras, I’m struck by the Manzanitas. Not only are they eye catching in ways few plants are (the photos speak for themselves) but many appear to be near perfect for bonsai with squat trunks, small leaves and more than their fair share of character. And, they are practically everywhere. To be sure some are too big (there are over fifty species of Manzanita) but many, if not most, varieties look ready made bonsai.

Where are all the Manzanita bonsai?
My guess is that manzanitas just don’t take to bonsai culture. But, it’s just a guess. Or maybe there are some great manzanita bonsai that have been hiding from me. Perhaps one of you lucky enough to live in mazanita country can clue me in.

The fairly short grasses give you some idea just how squat and powerful this trunk is. No need to point out the dramatic interplay of deadwood and the trademark slick red bark.

Same tree as above. It stands about five feet high.

Another powerful little trunk. It looks like soil around the base of the trunk, but really it’s almost all granite. What appears to be soil is just some organic matter that has dropped off the tree or been blown around the base of the trunk by the wind.

We shot this one to give you some idea of just how much deadwood an old manzanita can have. Notice the two thin live veins that support the entire tree.

The tree
Okay, we know it’s amazing. The longer you look at it, the more amazing it is. But, we still haven’t identified the species (Sierra juniper?). And we’ll probably never know the age, though it’s safe to say that it’s very old. My guess is well over 1,000 years, maybe much older than that (check out the Bennett Juniper below). The location is somewhere in the Sierras (near Lake Tahoe?). Anyone else?

The rock
If you stop for a minute and and take in the whole photo, it doesn’t take long to realize that it’s not just about the tree. The almost perfectly symmetrical way the the big rectangular rock frames the tree, which grows pretty much exactly from the very center of the rock, looks like it’s been done intentionally. Not that anything more needs to be read into the situation, just that you’ve got to hand it Mother Nature when it comes to composing mind stopping scenes.

The soil?
How does a tree of that magnitude grow out of a crack in a rock? I await your thoughts.

The Bennett Juniper as it appears in an article by Eric Schrader of The Bonsai Society of San Francisco.

The Bennett Juniper: another amazing old tree
The Bennett Juniper is one of the best known tree’s in the world. Like our subject tree, it lives in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here’s what the Forest Service has to say about this venerable tree (as quoted by Eric Schrader in his article):

The Bennett Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis – Sierra juniper) is named after Clarence Bennett, a naturalist who devoted himself to the study of this specific species. It is, indeed, the biggest western juniper in existence. It ranks 14th in points among all champion trees, according to the folks who maintain the National Register of Big Trees. Only seven known trees have a greater girth (this must be a misprint as there are numerous Sequoia gigantus and other trees with larger diameters).

Although located in the Stanislaus National Forest, The Bennett Juniper is situated on private property, owned and maintained by the Save-The-Redwoods League by way of a donation from the land’s original owner, Joe Martin. Mr. Martin donated the tree site and three acres surrounding it to the Nature Conservancy in 1978. The job of protecting the Bennett has since been passed on to Save-The-Redwoods.

Measurements
The Bennett Juniper was last measured in 1983. Its circumference (at the 4 1/2-foot mark) is 480 inches, average diameter approximately 13 feet; it is 86 feet in height with a 58-foot crown spread. It scored a total of 581 points when rated by the National Register of Big Trees. Its red, fibrous bark resembles a coastal redwood. The gnarled, knotted branches sport a carpet of lichen on top and reach out to small, shrub-like green leaves.

Age
Experts have been arguing over the age of the tree for quite some time. Most estimates date the tree from 3,000-6,000 years old. Recent dendrochronology tests performed by tree experts now date the tree at closer to 3,000 years of age, roughly the same age as another giant, but dead, western juniper found in the same vicinity of high granite country. That tree, known as the Schofield Juniper, was already as old as the Bennett when it died 800 years ago.

A significant number of folks who know trees maintain that the Bennett is the oldest living champion tree-period. They cite the example of a branch some three inches in diameter, examined after it dropped from the main part of the tree. It contained 550 annual rings. They postulate that it took 700 to 1,000 years for the tree to add just the outer foot of its thirteen-foot diameter.

Location
The Bennett Juniper is located in the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, California. Just off Highway 108, the Bennett is accessible via eagle Meadow Road (Forest Service Road 5N01.)

The Bennett receives about 1,500 visitors each year, visitors who have to make an effort just to be able to see the old giant. In order to get to the tree, visitors must ford two streams in the process of traversing twelve miles of Forest roads, the first five miles of which are paved, the last seven becoming increasingly bumpy and narrow until you see a tiny vertical green sign with an even smaller arrow reading “juniper” and arrive at the driveway that leads onto the Save-The-Redwoods property.

When you get there, you’ll likely be met by a gentleman named Ken Brunges, who acts as the Save-The-Redwoods representative and caretaker to the Bennett. In the summer of 2007 Ken marked his 19th year of attending to this giant.

Ken has made many improvements to the trail and the immediate area surrounding the tree, such as hauling in native rock for the pathway and installing wooden benches for the comfort of visitors. Best of all, he provides many of the answers to the many questions about the Bennett Juniper.