How old is a tree?

mike_p

A question concerning bonsai age. For instance, a California juniper estimated to be 500 years old, but only in bonsai culture for less than 10 years. What is it's age?

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RonMartin(deceased)

As a bonsai, less than 10 years old

Attila

Biological age or bonsai-culture age?


On a serious note, I couldn't care less about years in bonsai culture unless a significant bonsai history comes with it (cared for by 5 generations of bonsai masters, for instance, or inherited from my family tree). As long as it is established and it's healthy in a bonsai pot, that's all that matters.
If someone gave it a finished look in 4 years or 14 years, what difference does it make? The biological age is much more significant to me.

For horticultural reasons: Rootpruning is approached differently for a 10 yrs. old pine versus a 100 yrs. old pine. Also, mature bark is a beautiful thing, dependent mostly on biological age (pot culture has some effect on it, but not much).

And for emotional and intellectual reasons: A tree that "witnessed" the mongol invasion for example is pretty cool.

BonsaiMon

MikeP that's easy .. the age of the tree is the age of the tree

[FONT=Arial Narrow].. 'ere's a good question on age..
You take a cutting/air layer that has been on a tree for two hundred years..
How old is the new tree?[/FONT]

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tom stoute

http://bonsaiinsights.spaces.live.com/

hortriot

'ere's a good question on age..
You take a cutting/air layer that has been on a tree for two hundred years..
How old is the new tree?

tasmania australia is home to the huon pine, a grove was recently discovered and the age of the grove was calculated to be 10000 years, the grove was formed by vegetative propagation over 10000 years, now theres an old cutting ;oD

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another day, another leaf

spoonman

yea tasmania is a great place for old growth, shame the tasmanian govt are a bunch of tards and let it get cutdown.

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"Little laurel trees, your roots can find
No mountain, yet your leaves extend
Beyond your own world into mine
Perennial wands, unfolding in my thought
The budding evergreen of time."
-Kathleen Raine, The Trees in Tubs

dbdotdot

hortriot--

See there's this plane see, and there's a fly inside the plane see, and the plane's flying at 630 MPH see, and the fly's flying 3MPH inside the plane see, How fast is the fly REALLY flying?

See, always the age-old question of point-of-view.,,,

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Will_Heath

Not quite...

It's all relative to the observer (Einstein)

To the person outside the plane observing, the fly is flying at 633 mph. However, to the person inside the plane observing, the fly is flying at 3 mph.

As to the branch cutting off the old tree, the cutting is as old as the number of days it has been growing. If it has been growing on the old tree for 5 years before it was cut, then it is 5 years old. Nothing relative here.

Finally, the age of the tree and how long it has been in bonsai culture are two different measurements.


Will

rockm

Actually there is alot relative to what you've said. From that perspective, the entire living portion of a 1,200 year old tree is only a few years old. Trees regenerate their entire living portions every few years. The outer "shell" of the tree in the only living portion of the plant.