Can Anyone Identify This?

[Ecoman]

A few weeks ago I was walking along a forestry track when I spotted some sort of spiky growth on the trunk of a tree. I took a couple of photos but thought it might just have need a load of pine needles stuck to a sap oozing wound on the tree. It wasn't until I saw the same thing sprouting out of a beech stump on the "Ultimate Fungi Thread" that I realised all may have not been as I first thought.

Anyway, here it is and can anyone shed some light on what it may be please?

 

[mountainm]

It's the very rare arboreal hedgehog.

 

[Shewie]

It looks like a gall growth ...

http://juneauempire.com/outdoors/2013-03-22/brooms-burls-and-pine-tree-galls#.UrNuI9I7vTo

 

[Ecoman]

Nope sorry Shewie, It looked nothing like that and didn't fit the description.

Joking aside Mountainm it actually did look a bit like a huge rolled up hedgehog. Or a rolled up coconut mat.

 

[xylaria]

It looks like a tree disease where the tree grows sticks in responce to infection.

 

[Toddy]

It's a Witch's Nest.

Basically it's a pathogen that causes cell growth, but it's abnormal cell growth so it's got bark and twigs and leaf bud genes all growing nuts.
It doesn't kill the tree, and it's rarely tight enough to be called a burr, but it's kind of cool to see one so discrete on a trunk.

Well, that's what I think it is.....arboreal hedgehog sounds better

M

 

[Ecoman]

I've been looking up witches broom, which is a growth very similar to what I saw.

 

[Toddy]

Found a link, which call's it a Witch's broom though.

http://cuyahogamg.org/MGGardeningArticles/Trees and Shrubs/TV08 01 - Mraz.pdf

M

 

[Ecoman]

I like the witches nest theory. Close to what I was looking up then. That would explain why it looked like a mass of pine needles.

 

[Toddy]

Total cross post there

Great minds think alike and all that
What Fiona said

M

 

[Ecoman]

and fools seldom differ! ha ha

 

[Ecoman]

Been having a good look around the web at the witches nest/broom and it looks like you nailed it Mary.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Toddy]

Fascinating things sometimes, and often you can find assorted beasties living in them too
Nice find

M

 

[Shewie]

So I was right then, just a different name

 

[Ecoman]

Sorry Shewie I guess you were so credit to you too. It was just that the link didn't really explain what I saw and so I dismissed it.

Next time I see one I might see about taking a look inside.

 

[Shewie]

Sorry Shewie I guess you were so credit to you too. It was just that the link didn't really explain what I saw and so I dismissed it.

Next time I see one I might see about taking a look inside.

I see what we call witches hats around here but only little ones in birches, there's one wood I visit and there's all sorts in there. There's a scrawny birch tree which can only be 4" in diameter but it's got a huge great burl growing about 5 feet from the ground, it must be a good 18" across.

Reading about those gall rust spores, I've seen a few patches of trees with an orange fungus on them, I wonder if it's the same thing?

 

[ozzy1977]

Always wondered what caused these, even when I was an arbor student many years ago they weren't quite sure

 

[Leigh Robinson]

is it not a woodland wasp nest? I don't know too much about them. From my understanding they are solitary and burrow a hole in the tree to live. The tree tries to fight the infection. It can come out as a burl or something similar to that I believe.

 

[Ecoman]

No, it was nothing like that. I did go back and visit the tree again and gave it a good look over and it seems to be what Mary suggested. It seems like several thousand pine needles are growing from the trunk.

My missus informs me that a similar thing can happen in humans. We can develop a tumour called a teratoma that can differentiate into any tissue in the body. Most commonly teeth, skin, hair, gut, etc. As a trainee Pathologist she managed to find 15 different types of tissue in one tumour.

I'm guessing this is the plant equivalent??