Fockea capensis has several different names and they are all the same species (Capensis, Edulis, Capensis).
I saw this really incredible plant at Paulino Gardens in Denver. I had been look for some type of a succulent to Bonsai since one of our club members showed one in our local Bonsai show. I fell in love with this one and decided to bring it home. It is a Fockea edulis which is a bulb! A bulb that grows branches like a tree and even has a flower to boot. Fockea edulis is also a form of Caudiciform from Africa.
They grow these bulbs completely covered by soil until they reach a certain size and they are re-potted so that a portion of the bulb is exposed and this pretty much stops the bulb from getting bigger. The plant continues to grow branches. This particular plant had numerous branches that were 3-4 feet long and they twine when growing. A small metal lattice was positioned next to the bulb for the branches to grow up on. I de-tangled the entire mess and it took 4-5 hours to do so. The bulb has milky latex sap which is poisonous. The bulb can be eaten if you cook it!
I decided to style the tree(bulb) as a semi-cascade or cascade depending on the pot. It still has a lot of little nubs from where it was cut back before, these will be removed latter. The tree does not like a lot of water and will rot if not in good draining soil. The whole pot appears to be full of fibrous roots. I have chopped the branches back and hoped it would back bud and it did. Wiring the tree was no problem and they are very bendable with out breaking. I only lost one tiny small branch that was probably not going to be used anyway.
I am currently keeping it in a plant room with artificial lighting and high humidity from fish tanks.
Here are some photo’s after it was styled:
Updated 06-07-2021
The Denver Botanic Gardens have two Fokea Edilus in their Bonsai collection. I took a photo of one them out on display in the Bonsai Pavilion the other day.
Denver Botanic Gardens Fokea Edilus Bonsai 06-03-2021