Two Legged Tree

Gary_C · January 03, 2007, 02:45:43 AM

Have you ever seen one of these?

It actually has gender, too.

johnjbc · January 03, 2007, 08:11:33 AM

Reminds me of some I saw hunting in the Adirondacks years back. Several times I saw a large round rock 6 or 8 ft. high with about 8" tree on top. The roots of the tree would surround the rock like an octopus and go to the ground on all sides.
I remember thinking that it must of rained at least a couple times a week for years till the roots made it clear to the ground.
The rocks were setting on top of the ground, most likely dropped when the glacier melted after the last ice age. So the roots were 6 or 8 foot long.
Have never seen anything like it in the woods here. (Pa)

WDH · January 03, 2007, 09:44:20 AM

That is a funny looking picture. Are you trying to pull our leg, Gary_C????

Somebody has been logging in those woods, and it looks like a forked top that fell upside down and stuck into the ground. The two legs should be cumulatively larger than diameter than the diameter of the trunk above the crotch (you did saw the tree had gender too, right???), but it could just be a weird tree. Only your hairdresser knows for sure, Gary_C!!!!

WDH · January 03, 2007, 09:50:01 AM

My bad! I must be wrong........

From the looking at your pic, you can't have a hair dresser!! Just kidding!

pigman · January 03, 2007, 10:11:59 AM

With all the mud, me thinks Gary is spending too much time on the computer playing with a photo editing program. Then again someone may have planted the tree seed upside down causing the tree to grow that way. ;)

Bob the doubter

Gary_C · January 03, 2007, 11:50:24 PM

You guys give me too much credit to say that I know enough about photo editing programs to make that tree look like that.

I did talk to the DNR Forester about the history of that land and he believes it was last logged in the 60's. Some people say that land may have been used for pasture before it was tax forfetid to the state. His speculation (he has not seen the tree yet) was that it started from two sprouts from an old stump, but I do not see any signs of a stump.

The view from the other side (the male side if you look closely) makes me question the upside down fork stuck in the ground theory.

Furby · January 04, 2007, 12:07:09 AM

You do know that lots of folks love to take a walk in the woods and then "modify" some saplings along the way.
The ones that live will give you odd things as in your pic.

A real common one is a simple X.
Used to be a good sized one just off the road by my Gandma's place.
One top peice broke off and some years later a leg rotted off, but the rest is still there.

I found one near my parents that was dead, but had a perfect U shaped arch sideways with the trunk above and below perfectly straight.

WDH · January 04, 2007, 12:47:06 AM

So,

You are not photo editing and you are not trying to pull a-fast-one on us...........That sure is a weird tree. Must be quite a story behind that one as Furby suggests. That tree is mossy on the bottom like the tree in the in the background, so you must be shooting straight!! I have seen tow trees grow together, but not like that!

Gary_C · January 04, 2007, 01:07:20 AM

Here is another tree not far from the two legged tree.

Furby · January 04, 2007, 01:08:59 AM

What kind of trees are these?

Gary_C · January 04, 2007, 01:32:00 AM

I think the two legged tree is a maple and the crooked one is a basswood.

Ron Wenrich · January 04, 2007, 05:58:54 AM

I've seen them in the past. It comes from 2 saplings too close together and one consumes the other one. I wonder if there wasn't a branch between the two at one time. The branch rots away and you have these results.

SwampDonkey · January 04, 2007, 07:29:40 AM

Yellow birch will germinate in the moss of a stump, downed tree or boulder and the roots will migrate around the object, often the old stump rots away and you have a yellow birch on stilts. Never seen a maple do that before like Gary's. Are there scars on the inside faces of the two stems?

I could see in a thicket where two saplings rub one another in the wind at a crotch and then lodge long enough so the cambiums connect.

Gary_C · January 04, 2007, 12:07:12 PM

I took those pictures back before Thanksgiving and from what I recall, both the two legs show only a slight oval shape and the main trunk is round with no signs of scaring other than the crotch. When I look at the pictures now it appears there is a slight ridge running up the main trunk.

If two trunks joined, how did they do it so uniformly all the way up? I do not recall a split at the top, but I do not have a picture of the top.

From what little I know, I thought that Aspen was one of the few trees that could grow from just a stick. If maple does not have that ability, how could an upside down fork stuck in the ground grow like that?

WDH · January 04, 2007, 12:16:28 PM

All I can figure is that it did not result from a broken top stuck in the ground that rooted. That would be hard to believe, though not impossible. Do you remember if it had a crown that looked alive?

Jeff · January 04, 2007, 01:42:23 PM

I'm thinking an expedition ofr Gary and a couple other members may be forming to get better photos on this.

Gary_C · January 04, 2007, 02:42:22 PM

This picture shows the most height. That tree seems very healthy and it is along a trail so it survived a lot of disturbance nearby. As far as I remember, the top was very normal and healthy.

Jeff is right, there will be further investigation next Wednesday. We are thinking many $$$ for the pictures. Perhaps a "Believe it or not show." 8)

WDH · January 04, 2007, 03:00:38 PM

It could be one of those exhibits at the fair that you have to pay a dollar to see. All proceeds to the Forestry Forum!!

srjones · January 04, 2007, 03:18:38 PM

I've heard doug-fir split tops referred to as "School-Marm" I was a little slow on the uptake that day, but then I figured out why... :D

Not sure what you'd call this, though...

OneWithWood · January 04, 2007, 03:47:37 PM

Someone bent a branch down into the ground as a marker some years ago. The branch rooted and filled out. The main trunk is intact from the point of juncture on up.
Take a shovel and a metal detector 8)

SwampDonkey · January 04, 2007, 03:49:43 PM

I'm thinking that when the cambiums joined the weaker top died and healed over time. Was there any evidence of a stub pointing up sharply at the crotch? It doesn't look like stilted maple as birch does. The root wood is somewhat different than the bole wood.

SwampDonkey · January 04, 2007, 03:55:56 PM

Sugar maple doesn't layer or root that easily. I don't even think beech can, although it seems to root sucker down south. I never seen beech sucker up here, we had someone try to find some on a hardwood management course. Every time he thought one did root sucker, you could pull the seedling out of the ground with it's own root system. Blew that theory. :D Beech seeds real thick here when it's stressed from beech scale.

WDH · January 04, 2007, 03:59:49 PM

The crack investigation team (a veritable Forestry Forum CSI no less) will gather all the evidence next week and will come up with a brillant answer to this mystery.

OneWithWood's theory sounds plausible.

WDH · January 04, 2007, 04:07:36 PM

If SwampDonkey's point about maple layering is taken into account, that could shoot down OneWithWoods theory. I guess the mystery is in the hands of the Forestry Forum CSI Team............................

SwampDonkey · January 04, 2007, 04:15:13 PM

If a branch layers, the top does not develop into root. At the point of contact a bud may root, but the tip of the branch grows vertical toward the sky. It's possible that tip of the branch could die, but the link from the rooted bud back up to the old trunk would die also. That connection always dies eventually on any layered tree I've seen. Go into the boreal where there are a lot of black spruce layered trees and you'll see how it works. Northern white cedar does the same. ;)