[poultrygeist]

I was admiring a pine tree today....



...when I noticed a couple of branches that didn't seem to belong...





Even though they seemed to be growing out of the main trunk, they were carrying hawthorn leaves. I then spotted the hawthorn round the back and realised that they'd grown through a gap and the pine had fused round them. Not seen this before and wondered if it's common.

Rob

[Ice]

Nature is amazing isn't it.  I've seen one grow around a metal post before.  Imagine the psychological trauma those two trees are suffering.

[celjaci]

Interesting

Ive recently seen an elder growing to 6ft in the fork ( probably rotting ) of an elderly oak tree and seen other saplings growing in rotting stumps - new life and death

[poultrygeist]

 

I think one is a cypress of some sort. I had to do a double take and luckily had the camera with me.

I wondered what might be going on 12" inside the trunk. Is there some sort of amalgam of soft and hardwood with a new hybrid growing from within. Crataegus cupressus. The May Cypriot. :blink:

[celjaci]

I think your example is where the conifer has grown around the hawthorn and both exist as seperate plants but there are examples of chimeras  where two seperate species grow together as one plant
I think theres one with a core of laburnum and a surface layer of broom.

Perhaps some clever person like Salmo could explain it for us?

[Salmo]

We see chimaeras every day. They occur when a few plant cells have genetically changed and continue to grow alongside the normal ones. Most variagated plants, pink variations in potato skins and zonal pelagoniums are examples. These used to only occur naturally but now of course we have genetically modified plants which I suppose are chimaeras.

[Rangerkris]

At work we have an old Cherry Orchard and there is a Eldery Berry growing from a cavity in the trunk of the tree im guessing the same thing will happen over time.  I was eating the Cherries on tuesday not sure how many will be left when i go back in today.