Bonsai Gallery of Walter Pall: European Larch nr. 7

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European larch (Larix decidua) #7

50 cm high
Around 100 years old
Pot by Derek Aspinall
from a tree which was collected in Austria in 1986

This larch looks kind of strange for many who expect a bonsai tree to look like a bonsai tree. But rigth from the beginning I tried this one to look ike real larches up in the mountains. A young larch grows tall. One day lightening strikes and kills the trunk down to a few branches. The branches which have survived will now give up to feel like branches and turn their top upwards to create subtrunks. At least one branch will do this, often many. Thus the crown looks like a candelabra one day. This is a very common sight up at the timbeline where just about every tree got struck by lightening once or even several times. Foresters actually speak of the candelabra syndrome. So I called this the candleabra bonsai form. Back in the early 90ies this was quite daring and I had to accept a lot of criticism for this blasphemy. By now the naturalstic style is widely accepted and a candelabra larch does not raise too much controversy any more. This does not mean that everbody likes it. But most accept it by now.