Interesting Biomechanics

[Amelanchier]

Little bit more inosculation on a mature Ash for y'all.

[David Humphries]

Interesting find Tony, would you say that the young growth is connected with the epidsode in some way?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited January 5, 2010 by Monkey-D

[Bundle 2]

Cracking pic mate..out of interest; inosculation: that accepted terminology with regards this kinda thing ? Is it used scientifically do ya' reckon?

Tim.

 

edit- you beat me to it Dave...

Not seen this much in Ash; least not beyond sapling...

Edited January 5, 2010 by Bundle 2

[Amelanchier]

Interesting find Tony, would you say that the young growth is connected with the epidsode in some way?

 

Yeah I thought that when I saw it too. Perhaps there's a local need for photosynthate?

[Amelanchier]

Cracking pic mate..out of interest; inosculation: that accepted terminology with regards this kinda thing ? Is it used scientifically do ya' reckon?

Tim.

 

edit- you beat me to it Dave...

Not seen this much in Ash; least not beyond sapling...

 

Indeed it is...

 

Inosculation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Amelanchier]

I think this earlier part of the post got missed first time round due to some softcore thermoporn

 

 

I was looking at a beech tree the other day and considering the current liability associated with a twin stem with an included bark union.

 

Looking at old pruning wounds up the trunk it appeared that the tree had quite a few branches that would have been growing in the direction of the subordinate stem, that I was now looking at with thoughts of when it might fail.

 

Now this lead to me wondering again, if these branches had not been removed by an arborist, whether one of them might just have fused to the side stem and formed a bracing bridge between the two sides of the fork.

 

These thoughts then provoked further musings about our use of standardised work specifications like the one used for ‘cleaning out’ the canopy of trees, which stipulates the removal of crossing branches. It appears to me that trees have a clear ability to form natural grafts between branches and in doing so reinforce their crown framework.

 

Such natural grafting appears particularly prevalent on trees that we consider to be prone to branch or limb failure due to week forks or branch attachment. So it then has to be asked whether the structural weaknesses within these crown forms is a result of the trees tendency for weak attachment or whether a history of over diligent pruning by a short sighted human has compromised the trees ability to optimise its own structural form.

 

I don't know about that Andrew. We only have to look back through the pic on this thread to see Oak and Plane self graft (or inosculate if we want the botanical term), not typically know for their propensity for limb failure.

 

I see this as an oppourtunistic adaptation that is expressed more in longer lived species by virtue of probability. There is a concept in evolutionary biology - exaptation, used to describe the selection of a side effect of a trait which alters the functions (and usually the expressed form) of that trait.

 

It's a more successful strategy to fuse the tissues together of two competitive branches than to have one 'win' at the expense of the other. Why not keep both if you can? Trees that inosculate easily would also have a structural advantage - increasing their longevity and subsequently their frequency in the population and their reproductive output.

 

I'd agree that we should reconsider the removal of crossing branches. I've never thought it necessary. Let the tree decide what it needs and it will kill off the parts that don't pull their weight by cladoptosis. The same goes for 'duplicated' branches, by the way - whats that about? Isn't all pruning wounding?

 

Perhaps we might even try encouraging inosculation by localised removal of corky phelloderm and the strapping of nearby limbs in place?

 

Thoughts?

[David Humphries]

Perhaps we might even try encouraging inosculation by localised removal of corky phelloderm and the strapping of nearby limbs in place?

 

Thoughts?

 

Guess what I'm going to have a play with next.

I'll get back to ya in 2015, to let you know if it was a success

 

 

Heres one I started in 1933

 

Nice wee wiki link btw, eyes loikes me science noice & simples.

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Originally Posted by Tony Sorensen

I don't know about that Andrew. We only have to look back through the pic on this thread to see Oak and Plane self graft (or inosculate if we want the botanical term), not typically know for their propensity for limb failure.

 

I see this as an oppourtunistic adaptation that is expressed more in longer lived species by virtue of probability. There is a concept in evolutionary biology - exaptation, used to describe the selection of a side effect of a trait which alters the functions (and usually the expressed form) of that trait.

 

It's a more successful strategy to fuse the tissues together of two competitive branches than to have one 'win' at the expense of the other. Why not keep both if you can? Trees that inosculate easily would also have a structural advantage - increasing their longevity and subsequently their frequency in the population and their reproductive output.

 

I'd agree that we should reconsider the removal of crossing branches. I've never thought it necessary. Let the tree decide what it needs and it will kill off the parts that don't pull their weight by cladoptosis. The same goes for 'duplicated' branches, by the way - whats that about? Isn't all pruning wounding?

 

Perhaps we might even try encouraging inosculation by localised removal of corky phelloderm and the strapping of nearby limbs in place?

 

Thoughts?

 

I think theres a few of us going down this line of thought, Ive never been a big crown thinner/cleaner always feeling that if a branch has begun to fuse as aposed to having too much movement and just rubbing away then it ought to be left, or even assited. I think the potential for increasing bio mechanical optomisation is obvious, I already posted and image that illustrates this perfectly.

 

The perfect bracing system is not far away, and maybe we wont have to worry about included bark in beech and chestnuts quite like we used to.

 

the sooner we look to nature for answers to manafacturing solutions the better.

[Bundle 2]

Cheers Tony...Id completely forgotten it's use earlier on , as indeed I had reading up on "exaptation"

Slightly off track...

"Nice wee wiki link btw, eyes loikes me science noice & simples."

Did you happen to read the record breaking sum raised in support of "wikipedia"? - You are apparently one of many who value this resource!!

[Bundle 2]

"Perhaps we might even try encouraging inosculation by localised removal of corky phelloderm and the strapping of nearby limbs in place?"

Perhaps....?

 

"whats that about? Isn't all pruning wounding? "

Leave em to it would be my preference....