Lodgepole pine Shohin

Hi all.

I would like to show one of my smallest pine. This contorta is a yamadori one from 2005 and this week I desided to transplant it.

Comments are very welcome

Best regards.

Gabriel
Chile.

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Hello Gabriel,

This is a very nice little P. contorta! Congratulations!

I am very curious about your use of the term “yamadori” for this pine. Did you collect it from cultivation or from a relatively natural environment? I see that you are from Chile, yet the natural distribution of P. contorta extends only so far south as Southern California in North America. P. contorta has been used extensively in agroforestry in many parts of the world, and there is evidence of its propensity to invade natural ecosystems, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. If you collected this beautiful little tree from horticulture or agroforestry then you are not dealing with an invasive (weedy) species. If, however, this was collected in a natural area then 1) collect more! (you are doing the ecosystem a favor) and 2) this is not a good sign for the native Chilean forest in the area (which I am guessing is composed principally of Araucaria araucarana and Nothofagus spp.)

On a related note, have you tired Nothofagus spp. as bonsai? They grow rather well here in coastal California, and I have always suspected that they would make nice bonsai specimens.

David Brunner