A Glossary/Dictionary of Bonsai Terms

An accent plant is a small plant that is used to enhance the appearance of a bonsai tree when displayed together. It can create contrast, harmony, or context for the bonsai tree, depending on the choice of plant, pot, and placement. An accent plant can reflect the season, the style, or the origin of the bonsai tree. For example, a flowering plant can indicate spring, a grass can match a literati style, or a bamboo can suggest an Asian setting. Some common types of accent plants are mosses, ferns, succulents, and miniature varieties of landscape plants. Accent plants are also known as kusamono in Japanese, which means "something made of or from grass".

An adventitious bud is a bud that grows from a part of a plant that is not the usual site of bud formation, such as the stem, root, or leaf. Adventitious buds can develop in response to various stimuli, such as injury, pruning, or environmental changes. Adventitious buds can help plants to regenerate damaged tissues, produce new branches or leaves, or propagate vegetatively. Some examples of plants that produce adventitious buds are willows, poplars, elms, and ginkgoes.

Air layering is a propagation technique that allows you to produce new plants from existing ones without cutting them off. It involves wounding a stem or branch and covering it with moist sphagnum moss and plastic wrap to encourage root formation. Air layering can be done on many indoor and outdoor plants, such as roses, forsythia, honeysuckle, boxwood, wax myrtle, and others. Air layering is especially useful for plants that are difficult to root from cuttings or seeds. It can also help rejuvenate leggy or bare-stemmed plants by creating a new plant with a shorter stem.

Akadama (赤玉土) is a type of soil that is used for growing bonsai trees and other plants in containers. It is a natural product that comes from the volcanic regions of Japan, especially near Mt. Fuji. Akadama means "red ball earth" in Japanese, because of its color and shape. Akadama has many benefits for plant cultivation, such as water retention, nutrient availability, porosity and drainage. It can be used alone or mixed with other materials, such as sand, bark or peat. Akadama is available in different sizes and grades, depending on the depth of mining and the quality of the soil. Akadama is widely used by bonsai enthusiasts and professionals around the world.

Akadamatsuchi (赤玉土, red ball earth) is a type of soil that is used for bonsai trees and other container-grown plants. It is a granular clay-like mineral that is mined from volcanic ash deposits in Japan, mainly in the Kanto region . Akadamatsuchi has different grades and sizes, depending on the depth and quality of the mining. The deeper-mined grade is harder and more suitable for horticulture than the softer, shallow-mined grade . Akadamatsuchi can be used alone or mixed with other materials such as sand, bark, peat, or lava rock to create a suitable growing medium for different plants . Akadamatsuchi has a pH of 6.9. It can retain water and nutrients while providing porosity and drainage for the roots of the plants . Akadamatsuchi is also valued for its color change when moist, which can help the grower determine when to water the plants.