Why is this happening to my tree?

[daltontrees]

Hi Harry, I haven't long got home and was hoping to find some detailed info on inosculation in one of my books. But no luck. Apparently it can happen at root level. The stems do look very close together, is it possible that they have fused below the pebbles in the pics? I'm not entirely sure that inosculation would allow the trees to share each others genetics and there fore produce leaves of each other.

 

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Cross Order inosculation would also be the scientific find of the decade. Like grafting a bat's tail to a snake and expecting the latter to grow wings. And fly.

[Pinkfoot]

Are you sure it's not Viburnum?

 

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[Harry_L]

I thought it was a dogwood?

 

 

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[agg221]

Cornus and Sorbus are so distantly related that grafting or hybridisation is unimaginable. They are both Eudicots but that's where the similarity ends. Compatible grafts or hybrids across genera are rare enough, and between Orders are extremely rare. Simlarly compatible grafting.

 

Yes, but I was working on the assumption that the thing which looks like a Sorbus actually isn't. Continuing that thought, Pinkfoot's idea of Viburnum could be a good one - particularly if grafted. One of the could be opulus?

 

What sort of flowers does it have, and when?

 

Alec

Edited April 21, 2017 by agg221

[Pinkfoot]

Presicely.

If it is Viburnum , it would open up all the discussed options.

 

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[Harry_L]

The only flowers i usually see on it is from the dogwood, they are white

 

 

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[Beardie]

The flowers would nail it. How long before it blossoms and you can get a (yet another!) photo up?

[Harry_L]

Not too sure when it flowers, sorry.

But i imagine it will be soon and when it does i will upload pictures

 

 

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[Pinkfoot]

This should be flowering now I would think.

 

sent from my phone but never in work time.

[armybloke]

Growth at base of tree ( dog wood sprouts, and other leaf)

 

 

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I would like to see a picture from where the two stems meet at the base. It may be a shot in the dark but the two species may have grown grafted to each other (potential) and formed a single tree. My best advice if this draws a massive blank is to get the trees DNA tested by offering all of your evidence to Wisley or Kew for analysis. You will never know the reasons otherwise and you may also have stumbled across an anomaly of nature as a response to climatic or environmental pressures?

 

I will show your photographs to a friend of mine at Oxford.