Clinging to Rock - Inspirations from Nature

Here are three pics that I had the privilege of clicking during my travels.

The first two are in a famous South Indian Heritage spot known as HAMPI. It is a world heritage site famous for the 10th century temples. The pics are presumably of ficus. I had clicked the pics from some distance as I could not reach to the exact spot.




The final one was clicked on an ancient house within the Ancient fort of Golconda in Hyderabad - South India
The species is clearly Ficus Bengalhensis and was in fruit when I clicked this pic. The berries are bright red in colour


Do share your thoughts
Ravi

Ravi.
thanks for sharing...nice photos.

i remember being asked here once by I think Iris is if it is natural for ficus to grow clinging on rocks naturally...these photos are the perfect answer for that query.
give's me new idea too. this will be a good design inspiration for a tropical penjing.

regards,
jun

Jun, being an architect, is launching for building his own wall for his next ficus project, I think.

alexandra,


I might do that with my own house, but no can do for my clients...I design modern asian house motif...no hobbit client yet...though i got "Ent" trees.

regards,
jun

An artificial wall/pot from Guangzhou, China.

Billy,
thanks. we got artificial boulders here that we usually used for landscaping, same characteristic with Ravi's photos, might also work.

regards,
jun

Billy,
Just open the photo's you posted, due to some delays of sort.
this is almost like the one I'm trying so hard to do on my red brick arch...thanks again,,,that photo would help me further. Darn! I thought mine was original...got to do some revision.

regards,
jun

Ravi,

thanks for the photos. It is educational to see India, other through the eyes of Bollywood - chuckle.

On our side ficus trees will appear anywhere and can be very destructive. Roof gutterings and old walls or drains, or too close to water mains etc.
Here's a young local variety, which is listed as Ficus priminoides, I have one as a tree in the backyard for the bark, to be used as paper [ Mayans and paper.] The birds are spreading the see everywhere. Pulled out of my front yard, between the asphalt and concrete drain.



No it isn't the one used in the US, longer leaves and more graceful.

It is also interesting to see names of places here, listed on your side [ Golconda ] obviously the origin is India.

Any images of your trip to the Bonsai nursery a while ago?
Khaimraj

Hi Ravi,

Khaimraj is right,ficus are really destructive on roads,walls etc...even on pots But if mother natures permit it to grow on rocks!Thats beauty beyond anything else..thats why ficus is a bit tidious,have to repoting often,but thanks for sharing & you too khaimraj,glad to be educatd in many ficus varieties on differnt places.

regards,
Alex

Hi Ravi ,
Thanks for showing the photos of hampi,I spent a few weeks there maybe 20 years ago and found it to be an unbelievable place. Its one of those hidden treasures of the world.

Jun,
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad these pics would inspire you in your Brick Arch Wall Ficus project. I am looking forward to see the earliest pics of that.

Billy,
Thanks for sharing the pic. Nice to see an inspiration and a Bonsai adaptation in the same thread.

Khaimraj,
Thanks for your comments and also for sharing the pic of your tree. Do understand what you mean that Ficus are destructive. Well it is the same story here too. The Pic 3 being the evidence. Coming to your tree well I thought you might want to let it grow some more before giving it a Bonsai pot. I am also enclosing a pic (below) of one of my trees again a Ficus which is called either Ficus McDonald or Ficus Ali. We use both interchangably here. I find this species very challenging because of the size of the leaves which are too long and kind of disturb the balance in the Bonsai. I am working on leaf size reduction with reasonably success. Need another 3 years for the leaves to reduce to the size that I want. The pic was taken about a year ago and the tree today has become a little more compact. Here it is


Alex
Thanks for your thoughts

Smithy,
Thanks for your words. Glad to know that you made the trip to Hampi. The ruins have gone from "ruins" to "crumbling ruins" in the last 30 years. I have an aunt who lives about 12 Km from Hampi whom we had gone visiting and that's how I got to take these pics.


Regards
Ravi

Hi Ravi,
Even if there were no ruins ,the rock formations alone were quite incredible.

Billy M. Rhodes wrote:An artificial wall/pot from Guangzhou, China.

Billy,

You remind me of the best memory in BCI China trip. To my mind it would be better if the bricks are smaller ones, so that it will look more natural in dimension.

Budi

Ravi,
thanks for sharing those images of Ficus with us.
Jerry

Thank you Ravi, I'm not start planting on rock yet, your some images make me inspiration in future

Thanks for posting the interesting ficus over the rock.

I visited the Mapi area a few years ago. Love the way the boulders were strewn over the country side. Wonder what natural force did that? Isn't there a very old baobob tree at the old Fort of Golconda near Hyderabad?

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the post and yes you are very correct. The Golconda fort is where the 400 year old Baobab tree is indeed. Infact I was on the way to see that tree when we passed this ficus clinging to a wall. The pic of the old Baobab (Adansonia Digitata) is as below. The person standing below is the local Bonsai Expert from Hyderabad - Govindraj who was the one who was kind enough to take me there.



Regards
Ravi