Building on ficus burtt-davyi

[luvinthemountains]

I seem to be flooding the tropicals forum today, for which I apologize.

This tree is what I believe to be a standard F. burtt-davyi, purchased earlier this year from a eBay seller. It arrived quite overgrown and leggy, with dessert plate size leaves and branches that made little sense. I have now repotted into this plastic bonsai training pot, and removed most of the existing branching. I have left one of the original branches (the large one you see on the right in the first photo), although I am still unsure if that one will stay. The smaller branch, which budded from the trunk after heavy pruning, is the likely first branch given its placement on the outside of a curve, followed by succeeding branches starting just above where I pruned the trunk back. The trunk above that pruning mark was quite straight and wire-scarred (as contradictory as that may seem), and now lives on as a cutting in hopes that substantially increasing its girth will result in the wire marks fading.

Above the chop, I hope to build another several inches of trunk with movement to match the lower half of the tree. I also hope to remove and heal over some of those unsightly knobs. This will likely take some time. It's fine.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I have done a fair amount of cleaning up the trunk line on this one. Some big scars to heal over. But so far I am happy with its progress.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I don't know what it is, but it ain't Burt Davii...Here, pedigree my purchase from Weigert's on Pine Island, ~2006.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I don't know what it is, but it ain't Burt Davii...

Hey, nice tree!

What you have there appears to be a f. Burtt Davyi var. "Nana". Much smaller leaves than standard. While you could be right, I dont think so. I have been casually studying ficus taxonomy and morphology for years, and I feel pretty confident this has been identified correctly!

 

[Forsoothe!]

...If you say so...

 

[HorseloverFat]

My Burt Daavi foliage looks like Forsoothes.. i got mine from Meehan’s..

Although in the “most desirable ficus” thread, I remember a conversation about these South African figs... some saying that they had the “larger-leafed one”...

Nice shape! I’m excited to see where it goes!

 

[YukiShiro]

Hi guys, I used to have all 3 Burt Davii varieties. they are native to my country.

the tree Forsoothe posted is definitely Ficus Burt Davii "nana". the tree the OP posted is also a Burt Davii, had one just like it, leaves and bark also looks right.

this pic is of the third variety, has broader leaves than the other two



best regards
Herman

 

[HorseloverFat]

Hi guys, I used to have all 3 Burt Davii varieties. they are native to my country.

the tree Forsoothe posted is definitely Ficus Burt Davii "nana". the tree the OP posted is also a Burt Davii, had one just like it, leaves and bark also looks right.

this pic is of the third variety, has broader leaves than the other two
View attachment 385754


best regards
Herman

Awesome! Thanks, Herman!

 

[luvinthemountains]

...If you say so...

Thanks to @YukiShiro for the apparent confirmation. We have had these debates over taxonomy before, @Forsoothe!, and I do not expect to convince you. For the sake of future reference for others who might find this thread, here is some additional information:

http://www.figweb.org/Ficus/Subgenu...ubsection_Chlamydodorae/Ficus_burtt-davyi.htm
http://lennardsbonsaibeginnings.blogspot.com/2009/10/ficus-burtt-davyi-african-specie-for.html
Scientific journal article excerpt (J.V. van Greuning) attached

I have compared my leaves against the description given, and it is a close match. There is a possibility, I suppose, that a specimen was misidentified in South Africa, imported to the US, propagated and sold as Burt Davyii, but that is a lot of supposition.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Thanks to @YukiShiro for the apparent confirmation. We have had these debates over taxonomy before, @Forsoothe!, and I do not expect to convince you. For the sake of future reference for others who might find this thread, here is some additional information:

http://www.figweb.org/Ficus/Subgenu...ubsection_Chlamydodorae/Ficus_burtt-davyi.htm
http://lennardsbonsaibeginnings.blogspot.com/2009/10/ficus-burtt-davyi-african-specie-for.html
Scientific journal article excerpt (J.V. van Greuning) attached

I have compared my leaves against the description given, and it is a close match. There is a possibility, I suppose, that a specimen was misidentified in South Africa, imported to the US, propagated and sold as Burt Davyii, but that is a lot of supposition.

I'm convinced! I guess I was caught off guard by the size of the leaves of your choice for bonsai when a much smaller leaf is generally seen and available, but then we all make choices.

 

[luvinthemountains]

but then we all make choices.

Fair enough! Sorry for my quip.

 

[luvinthemountains]

the size of the leaves of your choice for bonsai

Actually, I was unaware of the nana variety when I bought this. I may still get one of them. I have held onto this one so I can see how far the leaves will reduce with bonsai training. Rumor is they reduce substantially.

 

[YukiShiro]

Actually, I was unaware of the nana variety when I bought this. I may still get one of them. I have held onto this one so I can see how far the leaves will reduce with bonsai training. Rumor is they reduce substantially.

can confirm

the leaves can reduce to about 1cm on a normal burt davii, maybe even smaller

@luvinthemountains see you found Lennard's blog, some really valuable info on there about African tropicals

btw love the fat trunk of that ficus!

best regards
Herman

 

[penumbra]

This is a post that went in the right direction. You all worked it out.
I have both varieties.

 

[luvinthemountains]

Happy Holidays, everyone. Here is a brief update on this tree. Wounds are closing slowly but surely, and branches are thickening nicely. This year, I learned that this species seems to need heavy fertilization for it to grow well. Next summer, I plan to plant it deep in a terra cotta planter to ramp up growth and encourage better nebari.