When is a hanger not a hanger?

[Ben90]

Was working on a small apple today and when I got down the groundsman pointed out a hanger, I though 'that's odd' because I'm usually pretty methodical and don't leave hangers behind so long as they're not out of my way. I got up again to find an old cut on the end, it wasn't even a hanger I'd left, and stranger still, it was alive!

 

Turns out a fork in the tree that part of it was caught in started to graft with it, so much so that the new bark next to the old cut was green, the cut itself has started to occlude and the 'hanger' is covered in buds!

 

Is this a bit of a phenomenon or just a silly characteristic of apple that i've only just learned about?

[elicokiz]

Think that must be a natural take on approach grafting, the "live" hanger is plugged into the vascular system of the main tree keeping it alive. I would suggest if you leave the crossing branches of any woody plant long enough to fuse a similar phenomena would be easy to replicate?

 

Dave

[Stephen Blair]

thats cool, i have never seen that before.

[Mesterh]

Could it be a branch from another apple thats now been removed?

 

I woulda thought a hanger would die before it had a chance to fuse with live wood.

 

Excellent though whatever the story.

[dave fox]

i prune alot of apple orchards the branches self graft all the time !

[Ben90]

I thought it might not be such a phenomenon I photographed, since as said, apples have grafted merrily since the beginning of time! Still, I was just pretty amazed how quickly and successfully a whole severed branch managed to graft from a tiny contact point (probably only a scratch on each face exposing a small amount of meristematic tissue) and totally re-jig its vascular system to convert from the typical basipetal flow of synthates to a totally new one. I mean this hanger has all the buds in seemingly the same places it had when cut off.

 

I'll have to check it out in spring/summer if i remember.

 

Yes, I did leave it there

[Ben90]

Could it be a branch from another apple thats now been removed?

 

I woulda thought a hanger would die before it had a chance to fuse with live wood.

 

Excellent though whatever the story.

 

Possibly! Though I don't recall seeing another stump nearby, though there may have been an old wound below where an old branch was (not completely!) removed. I'll have to check it out again at some point.

[likeitorlumpit]

Could it be a branch from another apple thats now been removed?

 

I woulda thought a hanger would die before it had a chance to fuse with live wood.

 

Excellent though whatever the story.

 

I reckon thats the answer.

I can't believe a cut branch falling on a live tree would stay viable long enough to graft- but thats just me

[Amelanchier]

Nice find! Self grafting (properly know as inosculation or anastomosis) is common in a number of species - there's a few good examples hidden in this thread...

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-health-care/6163-interesting-biomechanics-16.html

[scotspine1]

The so called 'hanger' didn't fall onto that other branch and graft itself on to it, they were already fused a long time before the 'hanger' was cut.