What happened to this tree?

[MAY]

Hi all,

I took this picture earlier this summer of an Acer rubrum in a mesic forest in Hamilton, Ontario (soil is well drained sand with lots of seepage). Does anyone have an idea of what's going on? The two (one?) trees are completely grafted together at approx. 3.5m above the ground. I couldn't get up to look at the graft site, but from the ground everything appears to be cleanly healed together. Any ideas?

- MAY

 

[cerviarborist]

It looks like there is a fallen but not entirely decomposed tree visible in the background. I wonder if, perhaps, the adventitious sprout might have been pinned to the main stem by a hung up stem from the fallen tree, holding it in place long enough for grafting to occur?

Weird stuff happens in the woods when nobody is watching! Interesting photo, thanks for posting!

 

[robinia]

Mary Anne?
Welcome to TreeBuzz!

Sounds like Richard's theory is a good one. It also looks like the tree itself is stump sprouts from another long lost tree. Who knows what framework of limbs and trunks may have been there...

 

[MAY]

Yep, it's me! KSL told me earlier that you found me out.

Richard, that's the same idea that my boss (who is not an arborist but a very skilled ecologist) had when I showed him the photo. I'm hoping to get out there again this fall to take a closer look at it. It's a very interesting site - like I said it has sandy soils and lots of moisture, and the resulting plant communities are really wonky. Think Betula alleghaniensis at the top of the slope and Pinus strobus 6m downhill happily growing in the middle of a floodplain. Very fun to work in!

 

[cerviarborist]

I wish the development team working on the AWM (Arboricultural Wayback Machine) would get in gear, so that we could figure out some of these whodunnits and whathappeneds, not to mention fixing codominant leads and over-deep tree installations. If they need a new refrigerator box for the prototype, I saw one in back of the appliance store. I can donate some aluminum foil too!

 

[treemaninmo]

in my opinion it looks as thought the left most lead was growing ,and the top snapped or whatever which left 2 outward growing limbs one to each side and coming off the main stem at the 10 and 2 POSITION THE RIGHT MOST LIMB WAS UP SHOOTING RIGHT THERE WHERE iT WAS RUBBING AGAINST THE OTHER LEAD AND THEY GREW TOGETHER now included together

ive cut exactly the same lookin things from high in trees before



I dont know but it loooks like that to me

 

[highclimber30]

I agree with Robinia, trunk sprouts. Trunk sprouts, in my mind=clone. So, all the same genetically, what's to keep them from grafting at will? That in conjunction with what cerviarborist said about the pressure supplied by an adjacent fallen tree.

 

[Adkpk]

[ QUOTE ]

ive cut exactly the same lookin things from high in trees before

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like natures cabling job. I've seen these unions before too. Cutting them would seem to take away strength from one or other of the limb or trunk.