Thanks to Nina, I now know what these bushy bits are.
Going by the lovely name of witches’ brooms (witch’s brooms?) they are a deformity caused by fungi, mistletoe and various bugs. Although they ruin the timber from a commercial point of view, they provide homes for many different organisms including some species of squirrel (in North America).
According to Wikipedia, the disease is also ‘economically important in a number of crop plants, including the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao’. (What that means I have no idea as I followed the link but the text about the cocoa tree was so dense I couldn’t be bothered to read it.)
If you graft twigs from a witch’s broom on to normal rootstock you can make a freak tree.
Now isn’t that fascinating.
While on the subject of trees, do have a look at this book, given to Frog and me by my sister. It is beautifully written and full of interesting information. Unfortunately it doesn't have much to say about witches' brooms except in relation to the immense damage that mistletoe can do.
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| Copied from Amazon as I can't scan fat paperbacks |
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