Rhus Kuni - Literati

Hank Miller

A collected kuni bush .
Hank

Attached Images

lit048c.jpg (60.7 KB, 175 views)

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FredL

Nice tree, Hank. When I saw the subject was Rhus sp. I thought of our local Sumacs, but your tree is rather different. I saw a surprizingly nice Sumac awhile back, but I haven't tried to start any of them.

Fred

dbz12fan

What are your plans for the future of this tree?

I see three possibilities-
1. Cut off lower branhces and make a bunjin
2. Tilt the tree to the left to make it an upright. Cut the tree down quite a bit and grow a new apex.
3. Make a raft.

Number 1 seems the most sensible. I'd be interested to hear what you plan on doing.

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

Hank Miller

Thank you for your comments.
Fred, I think the reason this species is referred to as a rhus is because of the tri-foilaiar nature of the foilage. It is my understanding that things like poison ivy, oak and sumac were also clasified as rhus...., again because of the tri-foiliar shape of the leaves. I believe they recently have been given new names or classifications to reflect their toxic nature.

Charles, it is my intention to continue training this kuni bush as a bunjin or literati style bonsai. I feel that because of the lack of taper on the trunk one needs foilage pads lower down on the trunk. What I am pleased and excited about in terms of using this species for a literati is the fact that the foilage reduces extremely well and budding back on old wood is very common. Furthermore the new growth hardens up reasonably quickly. For these reasons it is easy to get good ramification in the primary branches and extremely small dense foilage pads. Unfortunately this does not show up all that well in the photo.
Hank