Came around the corner on a spruce and . .

[ghostice]

Was deadwooding a twisted storm-damaged spruce and when I turned around a corner a couple of feet up . . . right into a bunch of these. The tree was healthy but had storm damaged multiple tops - one of which I later removed to reduce wind sail. Anybody know what these are, how they form and should they be cleared out? They were about 4-6 inches in size, brittle and were all over the place (I had a start when I first looked up - the thought of Prometheus and aliens popping out of my chest in a couple days time was kinda the visual image).

 

[evo]

COOL! Looks a little witches broom like, but it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciation

 

[JD3000]

Yep fasciation.

Spruce can get witches brooms however, probably how we got bird's nest spruce and some other little cultivars.

 

[ghostice]

Thank you - I have never seen this in a spruce before, and other spruce ~ 15 ft away didn't show evidence of these. After all these years, nature still gives me reason to say wow, look at that.

 

[JD3000]

It's a weird one alright. Seems to be more common in the herbaceous world.