A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

Hidden Gemels 

Day 24: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22,  Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

 What you make from a tree should be just as miraculous as what you cut down. 

                                                                                                  Richard Powers, author of Overstory

Since beginning my residency,  I have explored but the barest minimum of trees. There are so many more species of trees to get to know - not just by name - but by their characteristics, their history, their stories. I have many books I am in the process of reading, but my residency will be concluding on Saturday; thus, my ongoing research will take place in private as is usual for me!  I may continue to blog, though, perhaps on a weekly - rather than daily - basis. 

For today, I'd like to share some of the more unusual trees I've come across. 

While searching for the trees of Ireland in Pennsylvania and New York State,  I ran into several that appeared to be "conjoined" or intertwined as if in a lover's embrace. Sometimes the trees appeared to be of the same species, but in other instances, they were clearly different.  I learned the term for this is inosculation, a natural phenomenon when two trees fuse together. Sometimes arborists intentionally graft trees together. Whether it happens naturally or through human manipulation, however,  these trees are known as "gemels" which translates to "twins."  Inosculation happens when trees grow so close they rub against each other until the growth tissue - or "cambium" fuses together. 

Several examples of "gemels" in Pennsylvania and NY State

This appears to be a very sick tree, but the large "tumor" isn't caused by cancer, but infestation of insects or fungi - usually harmless. They are called "galls" or "burls."

Hemlock Shelf Varnish Fungus

Trees that show these unusual growth patterns are known as rippled beeches. The cause isn’t really understood, but theories include internal damage when the tree is young, water stress or hormone issues. Rippled beeches remain stable as they grow so there is no safety issue.

Evil is the refusal to see one's self in others.
                                                                    Richard Powers, author of "Overstory"

Nothing, however,  is stranger than "normal."

 It’s a miracle,” she tells her students, photosynthesis: a feat of chemical engineering underpinning creation’s entire cathedral. All the razzmatazz of life on Earth is a free-rider on that mind-boggling magic act. The secret of life: plants eat light and air and water, and the stored energy goes on to make and do all things. She leads her charges into the inner sanctum of the mystery: Hundreds of chlorophyll molecules assemble into antennae complexes. Countless such antenna arrays form up into thylakoids discs. Stacks of these discs align in a single chloroplast. Up to a hundred such solar power factories power a single plant cell. Millions of cells may shape a single leaf. A million leaves rustle in a single glorious gingko.

Too many zeros, their eyes glaze over. She must shepherd them back over that ultrafine line between numbness and awe.

“Billions of years ago, a single, fluke, self-copying cell learned how to turn a barren ball of poison gas and volcanic slag into this peopled garden. And everything you hope, fear and love became possible.” They think she’s nuts, and that’s fine with her. She’s content to post a memory forward to their distant futures, futures that will depend on the inscrutable generosity of green things.     

 

                                                                                                     Richard Powers,  Overstory 

 

Gemel or Inosculation (hikeinwhistler.com)

Beech Tree Facts: Purple Leaves and Rippled Bark - Woodland Trust

What Are Burls And Are They Bad For Trees (gardeningknowhow.com)

Photosynthesis | Reflexivity

The Overstory - Richard Powers