Have you ever come across two trees with their branches fused together?
Tim Bennett, who does forest management, has come across a number of these trees in his work. He shared some pictures with me recently.
Besides being really interesting and grabbing my attention I get curious, “How does this happen?”
Have you ever heard of grafting? A lot of apple trees and other fruit trees are grafted. A root stock with desired qualities is grafted onto a desired top or scion (say a Gala or Honeycrisp apple).
Grafting involves exposing the cambial layer (just underneath the bark) of each of the two pieces that will be grafted together and joining them. This cambial layer is where active growth takes place. By joining the two cambial layers the parts can grow together. To be successful the root stock and scion must be from the same species.
Though rare, this can happen naturally. Say two branches from different trees of the same species grow out and start rubbing against each other. If they rub through the bark and expose the cambial layer on each branch and the branches stop moving for long enough, callus tissue, which grows relatively fast, is grown to protect the exposed cambial layer. This process fuses the branches together creating a natural graft. It has been given a big name, “inosculation” which means intertwining or fitting closely together.
This fusing together happens more frequently with roots, but we don’t often see it because they are underground.
Traci Taylor of WNBF News Radio shared a picture that NYS Department of Environmental Conservation had posted on its Facebook page.
It shows 2 trees joining at the trunk to form 1 tree. It looks like a giant stick figure walking in the woods.
Want to hunt down some of these rare finds? Get out in the woods and keep your eyes peeled. Even if you don’t find the fusion of 2 trees there are other interesting things to enjoy.
