What has caused the vertical wounding?

[Laura 12345]

Hi all,

 

I was at a site a few weeks ago, and took these photos of a mature horse chesntut next to an old ditch. It was single stemmed to about 1.5m, then subdivided into three. Each stem/main branch has vertical wounds with heartrot and inrolled tissue from about 1.5m to 6-7m. There was also a similar wound to the main stem from ~0.1-1.3m. They all face east, which is the direction of the ditch. Some of these wounds have fully occluded. There were no such features to the south/west/north. I had considered old, cumulative frost cracking, but given that the wounds all face east this seems less likely. Could it have something to do with the ditch? It was dry at the time of the survey but presumably wet during wetter periods.The tree wasn't leaning. 

 

Would love to hear other people's thoughts and guesses. 

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[Dan Maynard]

Historic flail damage?

 

Can't see your pics though, you're speaking apple with those .heic files.

[Bolt]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Conor Wright]

Old fire damage or even a lightening strike?

Or maybe a brutal battering with an excavator?

The tree to the left of it seems to have similar damage and looks to have regrown after losing its leader or having its crown smashed out. 

 

[organic guy]

Squirrel when tree young?

[Dan Maynard]

I see, thanks @Bolt.

 

I'd agree with fire, maybe a tree next to it fell down and they burnt the brash on the spot?

[slack ma girdle]

If it was fire damage ,  i would expect to see alot more damage to the base of the tree to correspond with the levels of damage higher up. I don't think squirrels like horse chestnut, so i would be heading for some form of canker, or kids

[Vedhoggar]

Probably result of a lighting strike ... not squirrels and doesn't look like fire damage either.

[openspaceman]

6 hours ago, slack ma girdle said:

If it was fire damage ,  i would expect to see alot more damage to the base of the tree to correspond with the levels of damage higher up. I don't think squirrels like horse chestnut, so i would be heading for some form of canker, or kids

The base of the tree doesn't seem to get damaged by fire unless the fire actually burns it. Most of the damage is done when radiant heat breaks down the proteins in the cambium and the characteristic pattern of necrosis tends to look like an assegai spear blade, broadly curved at the base and tapering out at the top

[Dan Maynard]

A little fire at the bottom might damage the base, but a big fire quite far away would radiate heat like the spear.