Where do the roots of piccolos come from?

When I picked up the piccolo for the first time, the luster of the silver keys captivated me. They detracted my eyes from the long and dark wood body and each time I picked up the instrument, I was mesmerized by how an instrument such as the flute, which is typically quite long, can be compacted into such a small contraption. Until now, I never really compared the overall structure of the piccolo to anything else.

Last weekend, when I was in New York City, I ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Looking around the room, each corner of the room was adorned by a bonsai tree. The bonsai tree adjacent to my table had a dark brown trunk with bright green foliage blossoming out of the tiny branches. In retrospect, the bonsai tree at the Japanese restaurant and my piccolo are not all that different. My piccolo has a main body, small rods branching out, and keys that cap off each rod, while the bonsai tree has a trunk, branches, and bunches of leaves tailing the edges.