Tachuela, A new Tropical to Me

penumbra

Imperial Masterpiece
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I saw this on Wigert's bonsai auctions on eBay last week and it was love at first sight. Told myself no more tropicals this late in the year, but apparently I was not in complete agreement with myself. It was advertised as the only one in the nursery. There was not much info to be had but I took the gamble and I am very happy with the win. The botanical name is Pictetia aculeata and its common name in the auction was Tachuela. There is not a whole lot showing up in my searches and I just wondered if anyone out there has any experience with this Caribbean species.
A peculiar note, even the leaves have spines. And the weeping habit of the compound leaves is natural and part of the charm of the tree that got my attention.
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Mapleminx

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Never seen one but I have to say that’s a pretty darned neat looking tree. The weeping leaves are making me think of dreadlocks right now!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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I have no experience with this one, it prompted me to look at Wikipedia, which was also sparse with information except that the genus Pictetia is in the same clade or tribe as Dalbergia.
Dalbergia is the genus known to woodworkers and cabinetmakers world wide as the rosewoods. I know a little about rosewoods, but only the fact that they are a non-renewable tropical forest tree. That they can not be used as a "renewable" forest product, because it takes about 400 years for a Dalbergia to grow to sufficient caliper for harvest for lumber. Had a delightful conversation with Leonid Averyanov, a famous botanist - biogeographer who was working mapping out areas of maximum biodiversity for the government of Vietnam, with the hopes that high biodiversity areas would become designated national parks. Preserving Dalbergia stands was one of the priorities in the mapping process. Gleaned all this transporting him from Chicago to Milwaukee for an orchid conference, where he was going to speak about orchids of Vietnam.

None of this has anything to do with bonsai, except the wood of Pictetia might have some properties in common with the wood of Dalbergia, the rosewoods.

 
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