A cloud tree is a tree shaped using

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

techniques. The leaves are pruned into a ball or cloud shape, leaving the stems thin and exposed. The shape of the tree as a whole resembles a set of clouds. Cloud trees differ from

bonsai Bonsai (; , ) is the Japanese art of Horticulture, growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural hist ...

trees because they are not miniature. Typically, cloud trees are planted in plain soil, rather than in pots. Similarly to bonsai, the practice of shaping cloud trees comes from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, deriving from a Japanese style of gardening known as Niwaki.

Gallery

File:Podocarpus macrophyllus,katori-city,japan.JPG File:Boulogne-parc-Rothschild 12.JPG File:Bambouseraie de Prafrance 20100904 071.jpg File:Japanese garden Monaco (topiary near the zen garden).jpg File:マチカド (182342715).jpg File:Japanese tree.jpg File:Olivera del tio Gabriel - panoramio.jpg File:Hotel Heusser Bad Duerkheim 04.JPG File:Korea-Geoje-Oedo 4098-06.JPG File:Cloud trees Pleszew I.jpg

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Cloud trees * http://www.silktree.co.uk/cloudtree.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20180312204223/http://warners.com.au/our-plants/plant/cloud-tree
Site of Royal Horticulture Society (RHS)
Japanese style of gardening Landscape architecture Trees