Leaners

[27RMT0N]

Here is a very cool fir that tipped over and kept growing as it reached for light. Removed a falling-apart cherry in front of it.

 

[southsoundtree]

I'd call the fir a tipper, not a leaner.



Madrone root burl is valuable.

Sorry... shoulda had a smiley.

 

[evo]

Pacific madrone is the 'leaner specialist' in my area and I've literally seen 60+ footers growing on almost bare rock, completely horizontal. They have a special place around here, houses are often built around them and they usually only come out for safety reasons or when they die.

This one was nothing special in terms of lean, but the house was being remodeled and the bank had to be dug back. Honestly I probably could have climbed it as is, but I was a lot more comfortable with a high climbline in the next big madrone up the hill as a tie-in. The crazy thing about them is they have practically no substantial root system. The excavator operator was able to just crumble the hillside with his bucket, and describes madrone rootballs as "like an onion." As you can see in the last photo, there isn't even a root-plate once it was dug out.

View attachment 79169

View attachment 79170

View attachment 79171

View attachment 79172

But even doug firs, which usually grow straight, can hang on at serious angles. This is a small one, but I'll occasionally see 80' firs at like 45* angles.

View attachment 79173

Yet you hardly ever see a madrone uproot. I know of a spot where the 6” of topsoil is sliding down the edge into the sea. This soil sits ontop of the prevashon glacial area, basically the layer the 1000’ of ice sat on. The damn madrone literally is growing straight down, to the high water mark, then does a 180 straight up past its own root ball. Nothing but air.
The tree in my avatar is a wild Douglas fir from orcas island. The tree has a lateral root 20’ straight back on the surface of the bedrock to a fissure where it dives in. I’m sure the fragile soils were long eroded to nothingness from tourists