Most bonsai enthusiasts will have come across the term ‘live veins’ in the context of bonsai. Live veins are areas of living bark surrounded by deadwood. They are often seen on juniper bonsai, where a section of bark twists around the tree in a dramatic contrast to the white deadwood (Sierra juniper are particularly amazing). […] Read more… >
The roots of your tree are *just* as important as the above-ground parts, with a lot of responsibilities which aren’t immediately obvious. I’ve summarised the main ones here but there is a lot more detail in separate posts with links provided below. So why are roots so important? Points 1 and 2 are fundamental to […] Read more… >
The cambium – or more precisely the vascular cambium – is a layer of cells underneath the outer and inner bark and outside the wood of a tree. It’s officially defined as a ‘meristem’ – that is, a region of cells capable of division and growthref. You may recall the ‘shoot apical meristem’ in the […] Read more… >
One of the first topics you come across when starting to study trees is the question of how they manage to lift water all the way to the leaves at the top of the canopy. Different organs play their part in this system, starting with the roots where water is absorbed into the xylem. Xylem […] Read more… >
You may have heard of embolisms in the context of humans – this is when an artery is blocked by something like a blood clot or a bubble of airref. A similar process can happen with trees and their xylem (water carrying) vessels. As outlined in trees’ water system, water enters the tree’s root cells […] Read more… >
The xylem and the phloem are the vascular system of a tree; they transport fluid to and from every cell in the plant, via structures that branch, divide and become very small – small enough to be able to reach every cell. But xylem and phloem don’t transport the same substance, like our blood vessels […] Read more… >
The first quality of a good bonsai is a thick trunk with movement and mature bark. So what actually contributes to the growth of a tree trunk? Two processes are involved. The first is the creation of new sapwood. Sapwood is the living wood towards the outside of a trunk which conducts water (Ennos, 2016). Sapwood […] Read more… >