AusBonsai

I have limited experience with conifers but picked this up from a nursery yesterday and would love an ID and an idea on its potential for Bonsai.

It was neglected nursery stock that the new owners are trying to sell off. It stands just under 2m from ground and is about 4-5 cm at the base. It also has 4 shoots from close to the base. I don't know wether these are seedlings or from the main tree. It seems to be responding to some care back budding on the trunk and branches.

Tree Leaves showing some juvenile foliage. There is more on some new growth and lots of back budding closer to the trunk that is juvenile. And the bark

I'm leaning towards Juniperus virginiana. Apparently similar to J. chinensis but needle leaves are in pairs often as tuffs on the ends of branchlets, as opposed to 3's on J. chinensis according to my book.

When I first keyed it out my book told me it was a Cupressus because of the pairs of scale leaves at 90 degrees, but as far as I can tell, Cupressus doesn't get needle leaves. Can anyone confirm this?

No one

If not a positive ID then can anyone confirm that the needle foliage present in small tufts would indicate a Juniper? Is it only Junipers that do this?

We are not ignoring you Dansai - just not sure. i have never been able to work out where junipers start and Cupressus end and ID of different species is often even more difficult.

Thanks for the reply shibui.

I suppose it doesn't matter too much if they are treated similarly. Like I said when I first keyed it out it came up as Cupressus but none of the species in my book matched completely (the key started talking cones and only had about 10 species in it and only 5 had description) but none mentioned needle foliage hence I looked at junipers and found a close match with Juniperus virginiana. Again not a perfect match but it did mention there was high variation in the species. Most probably a cultivar of the species or possibly a hybrid. Will probably need cones to ID correctly.

I'll start a thread on it when I get a chance to get some better photos as I think there is some good material in this tree and can see a number of possibilities.

Oh, and I didn't mean to seem impatient. Just curious.

It certainly looks like a juniper to me. Exactly what species I can't be sure. The pic isn't a very high res one.
But it will definitely need to be cut quite low.

Hi dansai
I'd be leaning towards a juni mainly because of the juvenile looking foliage, and yes there are some junis that grow very vertical which makes them a little bit hard to shape other than the formal/informal styles. The trunks tend to be difficult to bend if old and set
Cheers Rod

Thanks guys. I'll consider it solved and treat like a juniper.