Why are Japanese Trees Small?

Many Japanese trees are small because they are dwarfed by the Japanese art of bonsai. This art consists in training and growing dwarf trees as symbols of the Japanese ideal of the immersion of the self in nature. This ideal also finds expression in their poetry, the tea ceremony and flower arranging.

The tiny trees express quietness, beauty of shape and line, and the changes brought about by the seasons. They must look old, with a sturdy yet shapely trunk which has bark of an interesting color and texture, and well-exposed roots. There must also be a proper feeling of scale. This means short needles on conifers, tiny leaves on deciduous trees and small flowers or fruit. Lastly, there must be open space between branches and between masses of foliage.

The word bonsai means tray-planted. The art goes back more than 1000 years. It originated in China and spread to Japan in the 12th Century. During the 19th Century many Westerners came to admire bonsai. But it was not until the end of the Second World War that it became really popular in the western world. Bonsai societies were established in many countries, and many Japanese families now maintain a flourishing overseas trade.

Why Don't Trees Grow On Mountain Tops?

Trees do not grow on mountain tops either because the situation is too exposed, or because the soil is too thin or too frozen to allow their roots to draw nourishment from the ground.

In most mountainous areas, there is usually a clearly marked timberline, a boundary above which there is no tree growth. Sometimes the height of the timberline is dictated by local climatic or soil conditions, but as general rule the boundary gets lower as the distance from the Equator increases. In the far north and south the cold is so intense that it is quite impossible for any trees to grow and the timberline is therefore at sea level.

A range of mountains on or near the equator, like the Ruwenzori range in Africa, can be divided into different belts of vegetation according to the types of trees growing at its base and at various heights up its slopes.

Similarly the belts of vegetation change according to the distance from the Equator. The first belt is the tropical or rain-forest region where it is hot and trees grow rapidly. Next comes a hot dry belt where few trees grow because there is little rain. This is followed by the deciduous or warm and temperate belt, and by the coniferous belt, with very cold winters but fairly warm summers. Then comes the timberline, beyond which trees cannot grow, and finally the regions of permanent ice and snow, where no vegetation at all can live.