Pinus occidentallis (Hispaniola Pine)

[SystemDM]

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SystemDM

David Meyreles

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Hispaniola Pine

the apex

17 hours

Here are some images of where I live…

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Hispaniola Pine

the apex

17 hours

I am not sure if this is the right forum. First a short introduction as I have never participated in the forum. I am from the Dominican Republic. I have been into Bonsai my entire life on and off but never consistently and so I have many trees that I have basically been keeping alive and they are at different levels of development, but haven’t ever reached fine ramification or higher level with any of them. I am hoping to finally be able to progress passed the beginner level with my trees.
I live in the DR at 4000 ft above sea level surrounded by Hispaniola pine forests. Practically all bonsai in the DR is done with broadleaf evergreen tropical species but I have always wanted to try and use our endemic pine, Pinus occidentallis for bonsai. There is, unfortunately, very little horticultural information on Hispaniola pine and no info or knowledge that I am aware of on its use for Bonsai. I have been listening and taking notes on all the pine info on Mirai and also watching some of Terry Erasmus’ videos on growing pines from seed but really I have no idea. I don’t know what type of pine it is, single or multi flush, long or short… nothing. Chatgpt says it’s a single flush long needle pine, so I have been thinking of maybe trying to treat them like Ponderosas…. anyway… I decided to get some seedlings and try to start training them and see what I can learn. So I got about forty small seedlings in plugs and twenty that are a little older in small bags. I hand picked the ones with more ramification. Here are some images:

And the smaller ones

I have no experience with pines so this is truly an experiment! any ideas, comments, suggestions, help is most welcome.
Thanks
David

[SoCalNative]

If the pine is endemic to your area, it should make for a bonsai subject.

Determining what behavior the pine exhibits will help you know how to handle it and the timing of work. Here was an informative video recently on outlier pines

Outlier Pines

[Chado-ojisan]

Some quick checking suggests that this pine is closely related to both shortleaf and longleaf pine, P. palustris and P. echinata.

I have no idea how and if taxonomy relates to single or double flush, or any other growth habits, but I might consider the information about those as a starting point to experiment with.
Good luck!

[SystemDM]

Ohh wow thanks… will check it out!!!

[SystemDM]

Excellent … thank you I didn’t know that… will do some research on both of those species…