This elegant bonsai specimen of the willow leafed fig has been in training for decades and is an integral part of the Garden's nationally recognized bonsai collection.  Trained in an informal upright style, bonsai are inter-generational and in Japan are handed down within the family.

Willow leafed figs are native to Africa from the southern end of the continent extending up into the central regions. Not exceptionally large at maturity they nevertheless are integral to a complex biodiversity in their native ranges where they are pollinated by exceptionally small parasitic wasps who lay their eggs inside the 'fig'.