Since Valentine’s Day is coming, today’s quiz features a situation that’s a little too close for comfort:
This is not the result of three trees being planted too closely together, either by a person or by nature. What is it the result of?
Answer and another picture on Monday!
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Linda Chalker-Scott
Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist and an ASCA consulting arborist. She is WSU’s Extension Urban Horticulturist and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture, and holds two affiliate associate professor positions at University of Washington. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets.
Linda also is the award-winning author of five books: the horticultural myth-busting The Informed Gardener (2008) and The Informed Gardener Blooms Again (2010) from the University of Washington Press and Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens: Good Science – Practical Application (2009) from GFG Publishing, Inc., and How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do from Timber Press (2015). Her latest effort is an update of Art Kruckeberg’s Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest from UW Press (2019).
In 2018 Linda was featured in a video series – The Science of Gardening – produced by The Great Courses. She also is one of the Garden Professors – a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages. Linda’s contribution to gardeners was recognized in 2017 by the Association for Garden Communicators as the first recipient of their Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.
"The Garden Professors" Facebook page - www.facebook.com/TheGardenProfessors
"The Garden Professors" Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/GardenProfessors
Books: http://www.sustainablelandscapesandgardens.com
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I’m going to guess the main leader was broken off by a storm or crappy pruning. These three “trees” are the result of three new leaders trying to take over?
Coppicing, either by nature or by humans ?
We have something like this at home, with Leyland Cypress. We do nothing to them, so I guess, this could happen “normally”.
hmm, how about one tree growing in the crotch of another? That’s only TWO trees planted too close together.
Re-sprouts from a stump might be similarly grouped.
Or, like András suggests, many trees will do this naturally.
All of those sound a bit boring for this venue though. I’m looking forward to the shocking conclusion on Monday.
I agree, sprouts from a stump.
Root suckers?
I’m going with Jam, that it is a three-headed power struggle for who is leader.
Looks like overhead utility lines has something to do with it….
I’d say bad pruning – like topping – has caused three dormant buds to break.
stump sprouts
Weeviled White Pine?
And I’vew saeen forestry tree planters do just that thing… 3 trees in a hole. When your bieing paid by the # of trees planted…. well it happenns…. 1/3 the work for 3 timews the pay.