Ancient Bonsai Trees
Bonsai is an ancient gardening art form that dates back more than 1,000 years. Trees that could grow tall and majestic are trained to grow as dwarfs, with some maintained to a height of only a few inches. Bonsai trees, if carefully tended, can live for generations -- if not centuries. Does this Spark an idea?
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First Written Records
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According to the Bonsai Society of Phoenix, the first written recordings of bonsai by specie occurred during 1506. The records identified pine (Pinus) and plum (Prunus) trees grown in China as penjing -- the earliest form of bonsai.
Further Historic Recordings of Bonsai Trees
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From the 1600s to the 1800s, identification of bonsai tree species increased. Bamboo, box (buxus) and ginkgo (Salisburia Ginkgo) bonsai are recorded from 1617 to 1618. From 1620 to 1688, the banana (Musa), juniper (juniperus), privet (ligustrum), azalea (Rhododendron), camphor (Cinamomum campora), pomegranate (Punica granatum) and jasmine (Jasminum) are recorded.
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Oldest Living Bonsai
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The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington D.C. is home to a 400-year-old Japanese white pine and a 200-year-old Japanese red pine. Both were given as bicentennial gifts to the United States from Japan in 1976. Japan houses a five-needle pine tree (pinus pentaphyllia var. negishi) bonsai, reported to be 500 years old, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
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References
- USNA: National Bonsai and Penjing Museum
- Phoenix Bonsai: Chronology of Notable Histories
- Bonsai Site: A Detailed History of Bonsai
- National Bonsai Foundation: History of the Introduction and Establishment of Bonsai
- Agricultural Research Service: The Ancient Arts of Bonsai and Penjing
- My Bonsai Tree: The Japanese Art of Bonsai
- Photo Credit Stephen Schauer/Lifesize/Getty Images
