Reaction Wood

[derwoodii]

I still believe in my theory of a "tree damaged at juvenile but survives to then grows into it twisted self supporting form". A few pix and ideas have said nay its by other means.
Here's another I found last week.
Perhaps a combination of factors gives a combination of results. That root one defies my theory?? how a root needs to twist to support its self is a mystery. Begins to be a nature vs nurture debate, to resolve we need a boffin with a microscope. ISA Science Journal listen up any PHds lookin for that interesting paper idea.

 

[derwoodii]

Got another one this time a paper bark Melaleuca linariifolia not seen these do this before. Great twist in the truck around a wound or removed limb

Arising from below ground I suggest damaged with a twist when a juvenile and the response is carried on into maturity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melaleuca_linariifolia

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Perhaps "adaptive growth" would be a more comfortable term for some in this discussion.

Sylvia

Or as Mattheck words it "self optimization" the tree adds mass to parts that are weaker and need reinforcement.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I still believe in my theory of a "tree damaged at juvenile but survives to then grows into it twisted self supporting form".

I'm more for multi-stem as juvenile.

 

[derwoodii]

Have look at this one. See the roots winding up into the trunk. Its like three trees wound into one.

What freaky tree eh be a shame but I luv to sox it for a structure autopsy

http://www.metrotrees.com.au/treehandbook/page-listings/allocasuarina-verticillata.html

 

[treesquirrel]

Have look at this one. See the roots winding up into the trunk. Its like three trees wound into one.

What freaky tree eh be a shame but I luv to sox it for a structure autopsy

http://www.metrotrees.com.au/treehandbook/page-listings/allocasuarina-verticillata.html

Thats some cool looking #### right there.

 

[derwoodii]

OK one more. Now I,m startin to worry I have a local anomaly of wronguns or weirdo's. Hope others will post a few of their twistys to balance the books.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The look similar age, maybe you had someone who liked twisting trunks together 30 years ago?

 

[derwoodii]

The look similar age, maybe you had someone who liked twisting trunks together 30 years ago?

You know ya could be right. The Melaleucas are all kinda the same age although 5 - 10 clicks apart they may have come from same stock plantings of hmm a guess mid eighties. Perhaps here a DNA or physiological disposition could be cause.


Oh wow! I just spelled physiological correct 1st time.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

You know ya could be right. The Melaleucas are all kinda the same age although 5 - 10 clicks apart they may have come from same stock plantings of hmm a guess mid eighties. Perhaps here a DNA or physiological disposition could be cause.


Oh wow! I just spelled physiological correct 1st time.

Blind squirrel finds nut

 

[Corymbia]

"Thigmomorphogenesis". Fair dinkum Sean I reckon you lie awake at night thinking up words that most normal people would need to dislocate their jaw to pronounce.

Well at least we can be certain that he does not suffer from hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. According to an article I read in an arborist magazine a while back, we really should not use big words like thigmomorphogenesis. Shame on you Sean!

 

[treeseer]

According to an article I read in an arborist magazine a while back, we really should not use big words like thigmomorphogenesis. Shame on you Sean!

Yes, he should have said "shape changed due to mechanoperception".

yes those melaleuca twists look anthropogenically altered to me. there is a guy who does what he calls "arborsculpture", and he;s doing a weeklong class for $500, right after expo. tempting, but there is such a thing as too much edjerkation.

 

[derwoodii]

Next few weeks one of the melaleucas is coming out, tree vs sewer/storm water. I'll do a dissection take pictures n post. Lets see what going on in side.

 

[Boa07]

Well at least we can be certain that he does not suffer from hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. According to an article I read in an arborist magazine a while back, we really should not use big words like thigmomorphogenesis. Shame on you Sean!

Ha ha yes I read the same artcle....hoever I disagree that the term is incorrectly applied...even more I really like the term since for me it neatly encapsulates a major limitation on Arboriculture....we are really struggling to be able to provide specific detail on what is 'driving' much of what appears to us to be unusual growth forms.

So here is this term 'thigmomorphogenesis' which sounds wonderful and is intimidating to the uninitiated yet what it is really saying is....plants will respond to external stimuli....

...ability of sessile organisms to modify their morphology in response to a variety of mechanical stimulations, from direct contact with the stem by insects or other plants to flexure caused by wind, water, or snow. J. Murren and Massimo Pigliucci In American Journal of Botany. 2005;92:810-818
© 2005

Hardly breaking news....if you just wrote plants respond to external forces, hence the amazing and enormous variation in form between two trees of the same species, same age class, adjacent to each other so similar conditions...then hopefully the reader would think this is a most inadequate explanation of what can be observed!

Having said that in situations where other plausable explanations don't apply (like a person creating the form, or a genetic abnormality) it is as good an explanation as any other.

But I do agree with the criticism my use of the term was meant to be tongue in cheek ...I like the way it sounds when you pronounce it though...

 

[treeseer]

Not sure which article you guys are referring to...I usually advocate for shorter words, but sometimes big words say it better.

Thigmomorphogenesis is accomplished primarily through piezoelectric stimuli.

 

[treevet]

I like the word and like the avoidance of expanding the definition of Dr. Shigo's term "Reaction Wood" too. It could be converted to an acronym I suppose, but I am not clever enough to do it.

 

[derwoodii]

Before

After. Much to think n say but l'll let the pictures talk 1st
Such mess of things going here kinda hard to summarize.

Cross section where the side limb emerged its kinda a layer cake of wood n bark.

 

[treeseer]

Hmm pics seem to support the separate-stem theory. I'm counting 6. Are they separate trees, too? Might could know by slicing deeper in the stump.

Someone went to a lot of trouble it seems to produce the twisting effect.

o and i retract my piezoelectric stimuli hypothesis, before anyone bashes it. Not crystals, but calcium drive the process, I am told by a researcher of these phenomena:

In mechanoperception, the electrical pulse is related to the living cells and due to the cell membrane which allows a charge of calcium ions (Ca+) to build up differentially between the apoplast and the symplast, there isn’t a piezoelectric effect. Piezoelectric is associated with highly organized crystalline structure. Now, some will argue that the cell wall, which does have a crystalline nature to it, should generate a piezoelectric charge, but it does not. So, the electrical signal is biological in origin, requires living cells, and is the result of differences in calcium ions across the membrane. The calcium ion content is altered by calmodulin, which is a protein produced in response to mechanical stimulation. But this is long after the pulse has been generated and is like the plant cell responding to reset the internal calcium content of the cytoplasm. Janet Braam at Rice first isolated these genes as being expressed after mechanical stimulation and calls them ‘touch genes’. The difference in calcium concentration upon mechanical stimulus appears to be related to the function of calcium ion channels in the cell membrane which upon mechanopreception become more porous to calcium and allow its rapid movement across the membrane creating the charge.

 

[treevet]

Interesting.....you (Guy) are saying that was contrived. Maybe the original stem died and someone took stump sprouts and created this.

Cutting deeper into the stump....that appears to be the bottom cut as there is no buttress flare.

Maybe something other than this transverse dissection would show something.

 

[ozzy42]

Before

After. Much to think n say but l'll let the pictures talk 1st
Such mess of things going here kinda hard to summarize.

Cross section where the side limb emerged its kinda a layer cake of wood n bark.

That is not reaction wood like has been suggested and I would bet it is not 'the work of someone'. Maybe not in this case but I still believe we are seeing genetic malfunctions (mutations).

Melaleuca's ARE a genetic malfunction period.
Hate those nasty things. They are abundant in south Florida.
According to history ,they were brought intentionally to Fl. to ''dry up the everglades''