Some trees hold secrets...
Treebeard had a curious expression on his face as he looked at this tree.
It is a nice-sized live oak growing near the Pamlico River. The canopy is vigorous and spreads wide.
Wondering what had him perplexed, I walked over to where Treebeard stood regarding the tree. What I saw had me perplexed, too. This tree has a secret about a time in its past. Slowly, but surely, the outer bark is working to cover the traces of a previous calamity...
Wonder what happened here and why? It couldn't have happened too terribly long ago because those look like chainsaw scars. What story would this tree have to tell if it were willing and able to share it secrets?
12 comments:
Fine contribution for an upcoming Festival of the trees.
pablo,
Somehow I always seem to miss the deadline...
What a strange mystery. I'm glad to see it survived the encounter, though it does make you wonder what stories the tree could tell about that old scar.
jason,
I may have to track down one of the former superintendents of the park where this tree is growing. He may have some notion as to how it came to be like this.
A beautiful tree-with a secret-hope you find out what happened to it. Nice blog-I'm from the other end of the state.
If it were a faster-growing tree, I'd say that the chainsaw killed all the growth above ground, and the live growth are just healthy stump sprouts. But it looks like 50+ years of live growth....which kind of takes it out of chainsaw territory. Very interesting.
tipper,
It would be nice to know what happened to that tree...mysteries are all well and good provided they can be solved ;)
I popped over to your site to see what you were up to -- no sugar, buttermilk instead of sweet milk in the recipe and never, ever anything besides cast iron. My father liked to eat corn bread crumbled in buttermilk with an onion chopped up in it.
Swamp Thing,
It is a tree that confounds...
You have inspired me to get out and take a walk in our wetland woods.. well maybe when the snow isn't so deep here in western NY...
My Festival of The Trees Post..Herbie The Elm Tree
Oh! I'm so glad this wonderful tree had the will to fight through it's traumatic experience. Looks like a painful past. Such resilience!
A great photo story. Hidden secrets there - and great photos! Greetings (via FOTT) from Wales, UK!
I'm admiring a gorgeous tree when suddenly my breath is taken away. This has to be vandalism. Perhaps the person who did this got a chain-saw for Christmas & just wanted to try it out. Thank heavens your local authorities didn't see fit to chop this tree down. They would have classified it as dangerous here. Just shows you how resilient trees are when left alone. Great post for Festival of the Trees. Thanks.
a true survivor! thanks for the post
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