I stumbled upon this the other day while mindlessly flitting though my daily facebook clutter. Here’s the caption that came with it: La foto de este bonsái pertenece al álbum de Kodachi Ken Senshi. He’s from Willemstad, the capital city of Curaçao.
It looks like a shrunken down Juniper, but it’s not
It’s a Pilea microphylla. They got the microphylla part right for sure. Its common name is Artillery plant. It’s a tropical ground cover that grows on Curaçao (an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) which is where Kodanchi Ken Senshi lives.
Three Portulcaria afra (commonly called jade, but they’re not) and some ground covers on a rock. It’s a great rock and the overall feeling works. The way many of the nooks and crannies have been colonized by in-scale, small leafed ground covers (maybe it’s Pilea microphylla) creates a natural feel. The main tree fits the scale quite well, but the leaves on the other two Portulacaria seem a little large and clunky. With time and some judicious trimming, that’s easily corrected. Also by Kodachi Ken Senshi.
A rough hewn Caesalpinia coriaria (Didvi divi) Yamadori by Kodachi Ken Senshi. There’s a definite advantage to living in the tropics.
Willemstad, the capital city of Curaçao. Hmmmm, there’s six inches of snow on the ground here in Vermont, day temperatures are well below freezing and the night air takes your breath away….