Dwarf Weeping Barbados Cherry - Malpighia pendiculata

[/quote]after some additional looking around your tree "flowers and Leaf type" seem to fit the bill for Malpighia punicifolia.[/quote]

Thanks Randy.

Your list has 5 punicifolias, 4 as varieties. Some taxonomists are splitters, some are lumpers. My GUESS is that the lumpers won this one, and pendiculata is now one of these.

Russell

Russell Coker wrote:Your list has 5 punicifolias, 4 as varieties. Some taxonomists are splitters, some are lumpers. My GUESS is that the lumpers won this one, and pendiculata is now one of these.

Russell

Hey Russell,

From the current records IPNI and others. pendiculata has never been recorded in any reasearch papers. I even went as far as talking to the Plant research deprtment at the New York Botanical Gardens yesterday and they confirmed that it's not a recognized name in the Taxonmy community. He suggested that it might be glabra but it has the wrong leaf type and the leaves have tomentose, or punicifolia which I think it is too! It could be one of the natural varietials or a sub-species but that will be another story! I just love plant detective work. ta ta for now

Randy & Russell,

The late Alain Liogier, a good friend and author of several books of taxonomy and botanical classification of species for Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the lesser antilles, lists Malpighia Pendiculata as a known species. Sometimes it is reffered to as Malpighia Mexicana, but this is another story. As for botanical nomenclature, it sometimes gives me a headache. I believe if you look under 'Mexicana' you might open padora's box, as every South American country claims it.

Kind regards,
Jose Luis

jrodriguez wrote:Randy & Russell,

The late Alain Liogier, a good friend and author of several books of taxonomy and botanical classification of species for Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the lesser antilles, lists Malpighia Pendiculata as a known species. Sometimes it is reffered to as Malpighia Mexicana, but this is another story. As for botanical nomenclature, it sometimes gives me a headache. I believe if you look under 'Mexicana' you might open padora's box, as every South American country claims it.

Kind regards,
Jose Luis

Jose,

Yeah, I get a headache sometimes too but it soon goes away! I love this stuff. Here is the listings for M. mexicana. I couldn't find any listings for your friends literature on the system but that may be that the organization doesn't know about it or it's on the list yet to be entered and evaluated.

Malpighiaceae Malpighia mexicana A. Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 2, 13: 337 1840
Malpighiaceae Malpighia mexicana subsp. guadalajarensis (S. Watson) F.K. Mey. Phanerog. Monogr. 23: 203-206, t. 20 2000 - Note this has 4 synonyms
Malpighiaceae Malpighia mexicana subsp. mexicana
Malpighiaceae Malpighia mexicana fo. subglabrata Nied. Malpighia 4 1889 (Note: this has been accepted as M ovata)
Malpighiaceae Malpighia mexicana var. subglabrata Nied. Pflanzenr. 94: 616 1928 (Note: this has been accepted as M ovata)

Randy,

Mr. Liogier was an authority on tropical plants and was the resident taxonimost for the University of Puerto Rico for a long time.

Kind regards,

Jose Luis

jrodriguez wrote:Randy,

Mr. Liogier was an authority on tropical plants and was the resident taxonimost for the University of Puerto Rico for a long time.

Kind regards,

Jose Luis

Jose,

Finally I found all of his botanical material. Boy he was prolific!!!!!!! I'll bet that the content and references of his work have just not been entered into the system. It's a long process for sure.

ta ta,
R

Just curious, does anyone have or know of someone who has an exceptional or just good Malphigia Pendiculata / Punicifolia. I need to be inspired. Images ?
Thank you.
Khaimraj

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:Just curious, does anyone have or know of someone who has an exceptional or just good Malphigia Pendiculata / Punicifolia. I need to be inspired. Images ?
Thank you.
Khaimraj

You and me both, brother. I've seen nothing but ugly sticks for the last 30 years. Hopefully Jose Luis will come through with some.

R

Russell,

i just had to laugh - "I've seen nothing but ugly sticks for the last 30 years " - R.C

I didn't mean to upset the scientific read off, and have had to do the research at our University's Herbarium, where they keep the records of all listed trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. So I understand.
It would however help if there was some way to take out the non-bonsai material.

As the pendiculata / punicifolia go, I suspect roots would give the most amount of personality, size and with the least amount of effort.

Two of my three - ugly sticks - and they are just sticks, bloomed and the flowers are somewhat red. So I guess I have the punicifolia. I took off all of the immature fruit as it formed.

I have trunks that are about an 1 inch and a huh, so what was planned after learning how to grow correctly, would be cutting down for growth to 5 / 6 inch heights and saying, be happy with that.
Though I will probably just airlayer, rather than waste the tops.
Until.
Khaimraj

Interesting -

http://www.schleysbonsai.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=402

5 inch trunk, 40 years. Okay I'll try for that trunk size, A 25 to 30 inch tall tree in punicifolia. That's something to work towards.
Khaimraj

Damn, my ugly bush in a pot is looking better and better!

Your lucky day Russell!

HaPP from Thailand posted Malphigia...finally.

My Malpighia is blooming again, so I thought I'd update this thread instead of starting a new one. Thanks again to everyone who contributed some really good info last fall.

Yes, it's still a bush in a pot, but I've made some decissions. First, I took out that tall, straight leader last year and that was an instant improvement. Second, there just isn't any way to make these two twin-trunked trees in the same pot look right. It's not the 4 trunks that bothers me as much as how they relate to each other. Early next summer I'll repot and do my best to seperate them. They'll both look better on their own, especially the bigger one.

Here are a couple of new pictures...





Thanks!

R

Couldn't agree more with the separation Russ. No matter how much I turn my laptop screen around, they don't work well together.

Yes, well, sorry about that. My camera's out of film.

Here are a few more shots...

Amazing composition, flowers, big bonus, simply beautiful.

Thanks Russell for sharing.

Gretings Pavel

Russel,

I like the trunks just as they are. Beautiful tree.

Libby

What I have found is that the correct name is Malpighia emarginata. The other names are synonyms.
Iris

bonsaisr wrote:What I have found is that the correct name is Malpighia emarginata. The other names are synonyms.
Iris

Thanks for that info Iris, I'll do a little snooping around with that.

I still want to seperate it because I really can't see how I can make this a decent bonsai potted like it is, but I won't do anything before next summer. I'll keep studying until then.

It's too bad computers don't have "scratch and sniff", in THIS case anyway. The flowers have a wonderfully sweet fragrance.

I had an unexpected surprise this week. Last year I only had a few, but this year it's covered in red "cherries"...



Sorry, that picture kinda sucks. Here's a clearer shot...



I'm going to put some of these in a pot and keep them warm and see what happens. Anyone have any suggestions?

"I'm going to put some of these in a pot and keep them warm and see what happens. Anyone have any suggestions?"

Russell

I live in zone 10 and have a Malpighia glabra (also known as M. punicifolia, Barbados cherry, acerola, West India cherry, wild crapemyrtle Malpighia emarginata) in my front yard. I grow mainly small bonsai so this tree because of size of leaves, growth habit is not really suited for
mame or shohin bonsai. I have planted seeds from the glabra and they are sporadic(depending upon pollination) and very slow to germinate...six to twelve months and the growth habit of the seedlings is very weak/poor and the fruit can be inferior. Most nursery people in my area air-layer or root cuttings. Don't laugh....we have named varieties of the glabra (Florida Sweet, B17 etc) in this area. The fruit like the mulberry doesn't last when ripe and picked.

I grow the M coccigera and the M pendiculata because they adapt well to small bonsai. I didn't see mentioned in all the posts that the cracked branches of a M pendiculata will heal(if caught before completely torn off tree). With the weeping habit, the weight of the fruit can split a branch on the tree or just a long branch will crack. All members of the Malpighia family are susceptible to nematodes in sandy soil.

I would imagine that the seeds of the pendiculata would also take a while to germinate also. Because of the ease of rooting fairly large cuttings of the pendiculata, I have never tried to germinate seeds. The glabra is a small tree and the pendiculata is a small/low growing shrub. This could be why we don't see many large pendiculata (maybe????).

Compared to M. pendiculata in the South Florida area, you have a nice tree!!!!!!!! Let us know how your seeds do and please show us more pics as you continue to work with it.

Thanks,
Howard

Heres a quick paragraph from Perdue....


"If seeds are used for planting, they should be selected from desirable clones not exposed to cross-pollination by inferior types. They should be cleaned, dried, and dusted with a fungicide. It should also be realized that the seeds in an individual fruit develop unevenly and only those that are fully developed when the fruit is ripe will germinate satisfactorily. Germination rates may be only 50% or as low as 5%. Seedlings should be transferred from flats to containers when 2 to 3 in (5-7.5 cm) high."

-Jay

Very good Russell!

What a difference the last thirty days have made.

Cheers,
Paul

Hmmm. So maybe I won't bother with the seed idea. I'm not much of a seed person anyway. But I guess I've nothing to lose.

Howard and Jay, thanks for the info. Howard, do you see much variation in pendiculata? I have another one that I picked up over the summer (it's in another thread) that's a little different. This one (A) has a pale, almost smooth trunk and fine textured narrow foliage. The other (B) has a dark trunk with fissured bark and larger, wider leaves. The leaves are darker and have a heavier texture too. This one (A) is quick growing and willowy, the other seems shower and shrubbier. My memory of this seeing this plant that friends would bring back from BSF conventions were always the (B) type. I'd love to know the story of this (A) tree, but I guess it will always be a mystery.

You're right Paul, I never realized how many berries there were until the color changed.

R