Can we consider this a bonsai?

[Bon Sai]

Here is it.

It's an Opuntia ficus-indica. Not a tree but a cactus.


It can look like a tree though, if it's old enough, with a trunk and branches and bark.


So, some time ago, I found this. The lower part ressembled a trunk with some bark.


So I cut off the rest and planted it. It's some 12" tall. This hook was great for wiring it.

The soil is 100% mineral. I haven't added any kind of fertilizer but it has been making new roots, probably with its own reserves but it maybe finds something in the water as it comes from a river without potabilization. I plan to kind of starve it so it makes small pads, because pruning them wouldn't result in smaller pads but half pads.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dav4]

Accent, perhaps, but not a bonsai.

 

[Anthony]

Called - Rachet on our side.
Used by some to soften hard hair.
Don't know if the leaves will dwarf.

We used to shoot it with arrows made from bamboo, from the
Bamboo hedge, when everyone here was 9/10 years old.
Bows also made from Bamboo.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Potawatomi13]

No.

 

[Bon Sai]

Accent, perhaps, but not a bonsai.

What do you mean by accent?

 

[Dav4]

What do you mean by accent?

An accent is a planting that accompanies a bonsai that's being displayed for viewing.

 

[Bon Sai]

Ah. It would need quite a big bonsai for that purpose.

 

[milehigh_7]

For me, a big part of bonsai is what does it make me feel, what's the first thing I think of. For me, I believe I would always think cactus. So proper bonsai I would vote no. Now there are some things you might be able to do to induce pads and budding and it might look good eventually as part of a desert display of say, a Texas Ebony but as a bonsai, no I don't think so.

 

[Michael P]

In its current state, no. But I have seen big tree-form examples in Mexico, with single trunks and spreading canopies. If you could find a way to represent these in a believable miniature, maybe.