Katy’s Baobab Bonsai

I’ve known Katy since we were 6 years old in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).  We played and fought and hung out together throughout our childhood and teenage years.  Katy has always had the knack for the unusual, the unexpected. I shouldn’t have been surprised therefore that she would take one of Africa’s largest trees (and I mean LARGE) and make it into a bonsai. Why? Well, it turns out she’s always wanted a baobab bonsai – a fusion of two great loves.

Katy first got into bonsai while living in Johannesburg.  The fuschia society there taught her how to create miniature fuschia and she was fascinated by the process.  Her love for baobabs came from her early married life in Zimbabwe when she and her husband each year went on fishing holidays to the Zambesi Valley which is studded by magnificent baobab. One tree she particularly loved was home to a leopard. 

“You have to tell people what a baobab is,” she instructed me. “Most people don’t know.”

 Well, they are strange, prehistoric looking trees (which is not surprising as they were around over 200 million years ago) that grow to great heights (5 – 30m) and even greater girth (diameter of 10 -12 m, and circumference of up to 40 m). The baobab is an ungainly, bulbous looking tree, with branches only extending at its crown, and for eight months of the year it has no leaves. It is thus often called the upside down tree as its boughs resemble roots writhing up to the sky. 

The wood is soft and fibrous for storing water through Africa’s droughts. It’s diameter can shrink by several centimetres during the dry season as the tree draws upon this supply. The interior of the tree often rots out, leaving cavernous spaces which have been used, according to AI, as shelters, homes, a prison and even a pub. 

The baobab does have flowers  - large round blossoms (10-20 cm across) which open at dusk, emitting a strong sweet scent. However, this is a one-night only event. The flowers wilt after dawn, sending out a putrid odour and then that’s it for another year. These trees are also amongst the longest-living in the world, surviving often between 1000 and 3000 years. 

Amazing that you can look at this ancient giant and think

“Now that would make a good bonsai.” 

Katy did initially feel guilty. “Its not so nice for the plant because you’re making him excruciatingly uncomfortable. Firstly you put him in a tiny pot. Then you add stones and obstacles, making a tortuous route for his roots to grow. I almost felt bad doing that as you want happy plants.” 

Five days before she was about to leave South Africa, she’d had the opportunity to buy a baobab bonsai and was devastated to learn she couldn’t take it to America. “I nearly tried smuggling one in.” But after 18 years in Oklahoma, very unexpectedly, she came into possession of two seedlings and despite their size (over 30 cm tall), she knew she had to try to bonsai them – they could never cope with Oklahoma’s snowy winters.

“I told them, ‘I’m sorry to be doing this to you but we live in America and you wouldn’t survive outside.’” 

In fact, they do live outdoors in summer, thriving in the very hot, very humid conditions. Not that it’s necessarily easy to tell, and their bare branches for so much of the year have sometimes caused Katy to worry that they’ve died. But when they do have leaves, they have them in abundance. These trees have a special significance for her.  

“Africa is in our blood and it’s like having a part of Africa with me.” 

It’s common for migrants to take seeds with them to their adopted country, a touch of home in the midst of a big adventure. But for me these bonsai represent so much more. There are those whose lives have taken a violent swerve; refugees in an alien land or prisoners within their own. There are those trapped in bodies that are bent on taking their own, distorted paths. Yet like bonsai, despite the rocks and obstacles, people so often do find a way to live – even flourish – in pots that seem far too small. They are a miracle of survival.

Bonsai: 

Bonsai – a fusion of art and gardening -  originated in China, but around a 1000 years ago it became popular in Japan who allied the art with Zen Buddhism. While the smallest specimens can be 3-8 cm in height, bonsai can be as tall as 1m. Sometimes they are trained into strange, unearthly shapes. Others are carefully pruned to be a perfect representation of the fully-formed tree. 

But beyond the intriguing nature of miniaturism, a bonsai is a representation of something so much more than itself. It is an object to meditate on, for viewers to interpret it in the light of their memories and experiences. There is about bonsai a still and tranquil quality, an exercise of beauty and endurance that can engender both recognition and a strange yearning. Because they are easily transported, bonsai can make excellent travelling companions; physical manifestations of home that become heirlooms to another transplanted generation.

Words by Zana Bell

Illustration by Zoe Sizemore

Katy’s Baobab Bonsai Tree