Bonsai styles

Bonsai styles are a set of named, traditional forms, such as formal upright, informal upright, slanting, cascade, semi-cascade and literati among others, that describe the overall line and posture of a tree's trunk and canopy. These styles give growers a shared vocabulary for discussing design and a starting reference point when deciding how to train a particular tree.

Choosing a style is not purely arbitrary, since it usually follows from the natural movement already present in the trunk, whether that trunk came from a seedling, nursery stock or collected material. A trunk with a strong downward curve suggests a cascade or semi-cascade style, while a straight, tapering trunk suits a formal or informal upright far better than a dramatic cascading shape.

Beginners sometimes try to impose a style onto a tree that does not fit it, wiring branches into an unnatural position rather than working with the trunk's existing character. Studying photos of each named style before deciding, and matching the style to what the trunk already suggests, generally produces a more convincing result than picking a style first and forcing the material to match it.