Thorny Ash?!?!?!

[Deleted member 149229]

Splitting up some black ask today and on the first split the bark peeled off as usual. Grabbed one of the splits and thought I got stung by a bee. Looked at the split and noticed these thorns randomly growing around the wood. Hard and sharp. What causes this?

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Here’s the pics, sorry.

 

[svk]

I’ve only seen those on cottonwood and sugar maple. Not sure if they were caused by an irritation or if those are undeveloped shoots.