Congratulations go to Paddawan and Adilawson for an extremely fast FTF.
Adoption Notes:
The fascinating and unusual joined branches have now separated at one end and appear to be dead.
This phenomenon (assuming it was not produced by grafting) is called inosculation - a natural phenomenon where trunks, branches or roots of two trees grow together in biologically similar way to the artificial process of grafting. The word comes the Latin osculum (kiss). Trees having undergone the process are called 'gemels' from the Latin meaning 'a pair'.
Tree branches have layers of different kinds of cells. The outermost is the thin outer bark, which covers a similarly thin layer of inner bark cells known as the phloem. Inside the phloem layer lie the cambium cells that make the branch grow. Further inside lie the sapwood and heartwood, responsible respectively for moving water and supporting the tree. The most important layer of cells for inosculation is the growing cambium cell layer.
If two parts of a tree grow to touch each other very slightly, movement caused by the wind causes the thin bark layers to wear away. It doesn’t matter if the two touching parts are a branch to a branch, a branch to a trunk, or even a trunk to another trunk of the same or a similar tree species. When the cambium cells from the two tree sections make contact, the cambium growing layers of the two tree segments fuse. Eventually, the tree heals at the junction and forms bark over the fused cambium cells creating a normal-looking branch junction.
Additionally, the thinner the tree species’ bark, the more common inosculation is among the species. Inosculation also typically results when tree limbs are braided (plaited) or pleached (interwoven).
Naturally conjoined trees have been revered as a symbol of love and marriage in various cultures - they are called 'marriage trees' or 'husband and wife' trees - and have inspired art and literature throughout history.
For example, the story of Philemon and Baucis from Greek and Roman mythology culminates with an image of the couple as two connected trees. Philemon and Baucis unknowingly welcome the gods Zeus and Mercury into their humble home. The gods are impressed with the hospitality they are shown, and the warmth and kindness they receive, and reward the couple by turning their home into a temple and making Philemon and Baucis guardians. At the end of their lives, the gods transform the couple into two trees left to grow intertwined with one another; Philemon takes the form of an oak tree and Baucis transforms into a linden (lime).
This story, which is over 2,000 years old, was the inspiration for Rembrandt’s painting of the same name, completed in 1658, and for the work of Arthur Rackham, completed in 1922 (see image). The story also inspired the poem 'Philemon and Baucis' by poet Thom Gunn (1992), which starts:
'Two trunks like bodies, bodies like twined trunks
Supported by their wooden hug. Leaves shine
In tender habit at the extremities.
Truly each other’s, they have embraced so long
Their barks have met and wedded in one flow
Blanketing both . . .'
Natural inosculation is uncommon enough that some old religions associated spiritual meaning with these sylvan occurrences. Despite the simplicity of the science that causes this phenomenon, inosculated trees look so unusual that it’s unsurprising that they’ve historically held symbolic significance.
Inosculation is used by tree artists to create trees with extraordinary shapes - see here for a fascinating video on Axel Erlandson (The Man Who Talked to Trees) and his Circus Trees at Gilroy Gardens in California.
So, whether you’re interested in finding deeper meaning and inspiration, or you simply marvel at the nature and biology of trees, keep an eye out for inosculated trees next time you’re in the woods!
See short videos here (Intertwined Trees), here (Nature's Incredible Bond), here (inosculated trees in Ayrshire), here (living art), here (living sculptures - maybe best to mute the music!) and here (a remarkable video showing how living trees are shaped into building facades.
