The sheer power of this magnificent tree places it in elevated company. It's a 50cm (20") tall Ficus microcarpa by one of our favorite South American bonsai artists, Nacho Marin of Venezuela. The pot is by John Evans of the USA.

Yesterday we featured a Ficus from Taiwan, so picking up that thread… and because I’m still on  mini-vacation, we’ll take the quick path  This one originally appeared here in May, 2015

Though this post was inspired by Nacho Marin’s powerful Ficus (above) and though Nacho is South American, when we start looking at Ficus bonsai we seem to circle back to Taiwan 

This must be one of the greatest Ficus in the world, which is really saying something considering how many great ones there are. It's by Min Hsuan Lo (Min doesn’t give the variety, but does say there are details in his book, Bonsai Journey). You don’t see many defoliated Ficus (they are broad leaf evergreens, so whenever you see one denuded of leaves, you know that it has been recently defoliated). The absence of leaves allows you to better see the structure and fine branching, both of which are exquisite.

Even without the caption there’s no doubt this powerful tree is a Ficus. If there are two bonsai varieties Taiwan is famous for, they are Ficus and Taiwanese Junipers. Here’s the original caption: 2014, with Chinese-style bonsai exhibition award category: gold medal species: Ficus bonsai collection: Liu Jingyan. 

Ficus microcarpa by Huang,Ching-Chi. We originally featured this magnificent bonsai in a post titled Fantastic Trees, Fabulous Pots. I guess you can see why. It originally appeared in the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website.