Bonsai tree: A Very Wild Mugo Pine

This is a wild and wonderful mugo pine showed up on facebook a few weeks ago.
There are at least two things that come to mind when I look at this wild mugo pine. First, that it represents a break with traditional bonsai styles, particularly traditional Japanese bonsai. It just doesn’t look like what bonsai used to look like not too long ago.The second thing about it is that it’s a mugo pine. It wasn’t too long ago that the only pines you’d see as bonsai were Japanese whites and blacks. Gradually, as bonsai spread to the west, other varieties started showing up. Now, mugos are becoming quite common and for good reason; their needles are small, they are tough, over time they can show a lot of character.