Tropical Bonsai Species List

[ArtAtkinson]

I know I've posted this list somewhere but I can't find it on this site. Please forgive me if its here already.
Here's a list of some of the material I’ve used, some of which are native to the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados where I'm located. The pros and cons are from my experience here. The temperature here at 13°N of the Equator rarely falls below 75° or rises above 86°, and there is a pronounced dry period from January to June. The same species tree will often pose different problems in different areas of the tropics.
I am sure that there are many others, particularly in the East. Maybe readers could add other species that they use and then someday we could get photo examples.

Accacias :
Pros: Small pinnate leaves reduce well, Interesting ball shaped flowers
Cons: The species native to Barbados have large thorns, but once you clip them off they're gone forever. Not had an easy time collecting them.

Bougainvillea glabra:
Well known throughout the tropics.
Pros: Good compact clouds of leaves possible. Can be cut back severely & will spring out with a large choice of branches. Very attractive flowers in many colours. Old trees fairly common in gardens and hedges. Transplants easily. Easily propagated from large pieces in sand or by air layering.
Cons: Thorns, but you can cut them off. Heartwood of the trunk and branches is very soft and rots easily, once it loses its bark. Rot can be stopped with Teak Oil.(This can also be a positive as hollow trunks can be attractive) Slugs and snails like the leaves. A bit complicated to get the tree to bloom on short stems and not lose its shape.

Calliandras:
Interesting leaves and shaving-brush-shaped flowers. Very good old trunks available naturally in some of the other Caribbean islands but not indigenous to Barbados.

Carissa grandiflora.......Natal plum:
An introduced plant. A bit stiff. 'Clip and grow' from young can produce interesting shapes.

Casuarina equisetifolia...............Mile Tree / Ironwood / Australian Pine:
Quite a common large tree in Barbados. We have not found it easy to collect - we're still trying, with some recent success using info shared from the East. They grow beautiful examples.

Clerodendrum aculeatum...........Coffee Fence:
A great native for Bonsai material. Interesting collecting material with beautifully textured trunks and leaves that reduce easily to 1/4 inch or less. Old wood springs back easily. Small white flowers.

Coccolobo uvifera.......................Sea Grape:
Common in the Caribbean. Leaves tend to grow large and out of scale (Keep water to a minimum when leaves are growing, which can be a problem with the plants outdoors in the rainy season). I've had leaves reduce from 6" or 8" to 1/2 inch on some shohin.

Croton flavens.............................Seashore sage:
Another native tree/bush. Grows naturally by the sea. Small greyish green leaves, not colourful like its more popular cousins, will reduce with time. A bit difficult to collect.

Cytharexilum quadrangulare?/ spinosum?............Fiddlewood
Very common indigenous tree. One of the only trees here with leaves that turn orange before dropping. Our tropical maple. New leaves spring immediately. White flowers, long bunches of green through orange and eventually black berries, flies attracted to fallen fruit of large trees.

Ehretia buxifolia...........................Fukien Tea
Not indigenous but familiar as bonsai. Shiny small dark green leaves. The species we use here seems stiff and angular. It's difficult to build branches with thick heads of leaves.

Eugenia uniflora..........................Surinam Cherry
Good possibilities. Attractive white flowers, and red, segmented, edible fruit.

Ficus... numerous

Gmelina elliptica? / hystrix?.........Donkey Dickey (not polite):
Very good subject. Naturally a large scrambling grower with long pendulous brown segmented blooms with single yellow flowers appearing successively from each segment. Blooms out of proportion with bonsai. Very good heads or clouds of leaves possible. Leaves usually up to about 3" but reduce to 1/2" as bonsai. Dark green with fertiliser but will yellow without drainage and a yearly dose of iron. In Barbados they seem to enter a dormant period in October-November, which can be preempted by removing all the leaves in October thereby encouraging an early new growth of smaller leaves. The very small ones change shape to a three pointed leaf.

Lagerstroemia indica...................Crape myrtle
Available in Barbados but no great examples yet.

Lantanas:
Two common indigenous species: (1) Lantana camara: More robust with small 'thorns', orange/red flowers and bigger leaves. Stems square in cross-section. (2) Lantana involucrata: Smaller overall, with a paler more attractive, sinuous trunk, rounded in cross section. White to pale lilac flowers. Have collected some good examples with interesting trunks. Leaves reduce well.

Malphigia coccigera ....................West Indian holly:
I have seen this referred to as the Barbados Cherry. No. This has a decidedly Holly-shaped leaf. (See below for B'dos Cherry description). Difficult to branch. Impossible to build leaf clouds. Some attractive flowers. Not an easy subject.

Malphigia emarginata (M. glabra, M. punicifolia) ..........................Barbados Cherry:
A great subject in Barbados. No longer found growing wild but quite common. A good subject. Small oval leaves can be reduced to less than 1/2" long. Smooth trunk that grows sinuous with age. Hard wood, takes carving well. Attractive, though small, pale pink flowers. Very striking, red, apple-shaped fruit, up to 3/4" dia. Mature trees can have trunks up to 1 foot across. Can grow to 25 feet tall. Multiple trunks most common.

Malphigia pendula:
Cousin to the above. Generally smaller, darker, more pointed leaves. Flowers very similar. Smaller fruit. Not a tree. Grows normally as a small shrub ( 2 feet tall) with limp branches that bend to the ground. Suitable for mame or shohin.

Murraya paniculatum...................Limonia / Orange Jessamine
Common as Bonsai in the East. Dark green pinnate leaves. Most garden shrubs tend to be multi trunked, rare to find single trunks. Mine are broom styled.

Parmentiera cereifera.................Candle Tree:
Very good, unusual subject. Mid green, trifoliate leaves that can be pinched to form dense heads. Pale, soft bark on trunk. Flowers directly on trunk, (Like Calabash) pale yellowish white, followed by long candle shaped green fruit when fertilised. (I have not seen fruit yet in Barbados but I did see a bonsai with fruit in Hawaii at the BCI convention). Bonsai tend to form large unsightly knotted roots above ground. Care should be taken to control the development of the nebari in the early stages.

Punica granatum.........................Pomegranate:
Quite commonly listed as bonsai material. I've not had much luck with them. They don't like damp roots. Used quite commonly in China and the East.

Pithocellobium dulce...................Bread and Cheese
Grows wildly on uncultivated land. Hard wood, dark brown or black trunk with small thorns on branches. Small leaves borne in groups of three. Yellowish fluffy flowers attractive to bees and small bird. Twisted leguminous seed pods which split open to reveal a reddish interior with black seeds covered with a white pith, eaten by children but not worth the trouble. The seed pods on the Puerto Rican version of this tree hang by long stems while ours are close to the branch. They seem to like very good drainage. Here in Barbados they are susceptible of leaf miners which leave white spots on young leaves. Can be controlled if you are willing to spray often.

Tamarindus indica.......................Tamarind
Good subject for fairly large bonsai where the pinnate leaves do not seem too odd. Attractive but small flowers, fruit out of scale for bonsai. Mature trunks have an attractive deeply scored bark. Needs very good drainage. Most mature trees in Barbados found in sandy soils.

[Budi Sulistyo]

Thanks Art. Your description is very nice and useful.
Budi