Tree oddities

People think doug firs are always straight and tall; and they usually are, but spend time in the forest and you will find them in every shape and size imaginable. My favorite thing about them.
 
27RMT0N said:
People think doug firs are always straight and tall; and they usually are, but spend time in the forest and you will find them in every shape and size imaginable. My favorite thing about them.
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Agreed they are incredibly genetically variable trees. At one point it was thought there were 8 different subspecies. Now its been reduced to two.. Big cone and little cone. I swear we have both here…. Then there are the blueish ones too, that tend to be shorter, bigger limbs and stocky..
 
There is a discussion about the Plateau Live Oak which grows in central Texas and it’s differences from Coast Live Oaks. It took me a while to recognize the differences when I worked in Austin
 
Tom Dunlap said:
There is a discussion about the Plateau Live Oak which grows in central Texas and it’s differences from Coast Live Oaks. It took me a while to recognize the differences when I worked in Austin
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This is just a sampling…. https://conifersociety.org/conifers/pseudotsuga/
I’d say that we have two to three distinct morphological phenotypes in my region. All of which then have their own thigmomorphogenesis, desiccation to wind, and very wild forms.
Some with needles so stunted I sometimes second guess if they are Doug firs, and have to do a double take for other traits. This is coming as the son of a logger in the PNW who could ID our basic conifers before I could tie my shoes..
 
27RMT0N said:
Here are a few firs around my house that I particularly enjoy. There are many more, but some of the coolest ones I just can't get even decent photos of.

Not odd, but a good side-by-side of a 'young' and straight doug fir compared to the old gnarled flat-top doug fir.

View attachment 79920

A twisty grand fir.

View attachment 79921

Natural bonzi doug fir, hard to get a decent photo of. It's growing on essentially bare rock, in a downward direction, maybe 8" at the thickest, ~3' 'tall' and probably well over 80 years old if I had to guess.

View attachment 79922

A sealed-over fir stump like Chris was talking about as well.

View attachment 79923

I'm not sure if this was a fir that had ground level limbs which were left and it was cut to a stump decades ago, but it's like 24" diameter, the stump is about that tall, and then it has those large moss covered limbs reaching 30' down the cliffside.

View attachment 79925
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The stump is sealing over, living off the interconnectedness of the grafted root systems, I believe.
 
Yep, I come across quite a lot of them out here actually. Maybe due to the very high density of our forests leading to even more root interconnectedness than 'normal'? Not sure, but I've got one that always reminds me of a fat Buddha statue and it makes me chuckle.
 
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