Friday, November 25, 2016

Texas Ebony – Pithecellobium Flexicaule


Similar to the Brazilian Rain Tree, the Texas Ebony has compound leaves and grows thorns over the trunk and branches. Native to Texas and the Southwest United States, the tree grows well in USDA Zone 10-11.

Branch structure displays a distinctive difference for the Texas Ebony. Branches grow in a zig zag manner with thorns at the nodes. This pattern provides an obvious point for pruning the tree as a clip and grow method works very well.

Texas Ebony can also grow flowers and seed pods but I haven't seen any nor do I really expect to in the bonsai format. One thing for certain is that the tree grows pretty fast with new shoots continuing to sprout from previous cut points.




Wiring can be difficult because of the hard, woody branches and I normally just prune at the branch nodes, however, recently I’ve wired a thinner, softer branch in order to adjust its direction. It wasn’t particularly difficult and I’ll leave the wire on for the winter to see how well this may work.




This particular tree has a very twisted, serpentine trunk/root base that is definitely unusual. I continue to have mixed feelings about the look but the tree is now much more substantial so I may consider doing something with this at a spring re-potting.