Imagine a fallen tree on a steep hillside

Dundee

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Without pictures or genus... imagine a fallen tree on a steep hill that is being held up, parallel to the horizon, from the ground below by another plant.

The tree must still have roots in the ground because vertical shoots are rising up from the trunk. The shoots maybe a year or two old and numbering in the half dozen.

The ultimate question is, by airlayering the shoots would a forest bonsai live a more symbiotic life if all the displayed trees be from the same plant? And I don’t mean symbiotic in the philosophical way... or maybe I do. Just a thought!

Obviously, the question of success is based on if the tree would take kindly to airlayering and if the tree is well suited for bonsai work.

If so, I’ve discovered a tree that’s fit the bill.
 

Bnana

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What do you mean by symbiotic, you are clearly not using it in the common way?

To me it just sounds like just having 6 air layers of one plant. But from a tree that does sound pretty spectacular where it's is now.
 

Dundee

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My initial curiosity and where my thoughts went were Aspen forest ecosystems. In that a bonsai pot is an ecosystem, that in part is a small man made controlled environment.

Also when thinking about mycology and the communication network of the “plant”. It’s an interesting thought to me. I’m sure many forest bonsai are created from same species, but is there an advantage to using the same plant’s growth in this style.

Philosophically, the plant comes from the same patent plant, does the forest bonsai thrive in these conditions. Digging deeper a close relationship between shoots gives a positive environment for the plant in a pot.

Maybe it’s just a personal interpretation, and it’s only (Had to look up the term) Anthropomorphism?
 

Forsoothe!

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Lots of tree roots graft with brethren of the same species, and become essentially "one" tree that looks like a forest of separate trees. We have a disease of Red Oaks locally and it's a problem because if one tree gets it, the whole colony dies. The Aspen are different in they are or can be one tree that has put out runners in a mat with sprouts every so many feet and cover a lot of ground, -hectares. Another type of growing that may be what you are referring to is Banyan Figs (among others) that have seeds that germinate in the litter in crotches of trees, grow roots down to the ground and eventually engulf the host and kill it, or not. The original "Banyan" fig is Ficus benghalensis which is famous for being so big it hid a whole army and is a national monument in India.
 

Potawatomi13

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Disadvantage of "all from one tree" forests is same growth characteristics/weaknesses ,no differences. Unless this is what is desired.
 
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