Bent trees

My whole life, I've seen trees that are bent, seemingly on purpose and was told that they were used by the Chickasaw as landmarks for directions. Seems reasonable enough, except I've attached some images that are of new growth, while the Chickasaw were removed from the area during the Trail of Tears.

Part of the area where these pics were taken is within the flood plain and there has been rather remarkable flooding in the past decade. But if the trees were bent due to flooding, then they would all generally face the same cardinal direction. They don't.

There are some trees that were obviously struck by lightening. Some of these are close to the struck trees, but that's not the only locations.

I can't find a central unifying theme. Some are bowed, some have sharp angles.

What kind of natural phenomena can cause something like this?

Some ways that I know:

Trees get held down under snow and warped.

Another tree falling and holding the tree down to it has to grow bent. Then the fallen tree rots out or gets cut, burnt or whatever and leaves behind the oddball.

Trees looking for light in a crowded forest.

The earth moving under the tree, so it slowly takes a bow shape trying to remain upright.

I am sure there's more.

It's the slow dance of the trees...


dancing trees by lars van de goor

I suspect it is just the loss of leading branches, possibly from disease or browsing animals. People would have used (still do!) unusually shaped trees for signposts but yours are probably naturally shaped.

Nancy Reading wrote: I suspect it is just the loss of leading branches, possibly from disease or browsing animals.

I would suggest several of  the ones with sharp corners in Logan's pictures would have been deer browse in my ecosystem.

The more gentler curved ones might well have been changes in gaps in the canopy allowing light to come from different spots over the years.

There are absolutely places where humans intentionally impacted the shapes of trees when they were young, particularly for the boat/ship building industry. Why have to cut wood to the shape you want when Mother Nature will do it for you with just a little "guidance"!

I like that! Slow dance of the woods...

I have manzanita all over. If you are not familiar it is the gnarliest little shrub tree out there and hard as integral calculus. Pretty too! It makes a great looking fence or table legs if you have the time to ad hoc it together.

Dan Fish wrote:I have manzanita all over. If you are not familiar it is the gnarliest little shrub tree out there and hard as integral calculus. Pretty too! It makes a great looking fence or table legs if you have the time to ad hoc it together.

I'm not sure it grows this far north, but it's cousin does and has similar characteristics:

The word manzanita is the Spanish diminutive of manzana meaning "little apple." The name manzanita is also sometimes used to refer to species in the related genus Arbutus, which is known by that name in the Canadian area of the tree's range, but is more usually known as madroño, or madrone in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanita
I've definitely seen some pretty weirdly shaped Arbutus growing. I've heard that it's naturally resistant to decomposition, which would make it a great outdoor wood!

After the fire last year, we found these which had been growing just below the path across the ravine.

I'm quite sure they have stories to tell!  I just can't quite figure out what they might be...

Hi Jay,

Yeah manzanita is great. The "little apples" are great tasting little balls of what tastes like a hydrated cider mix or something. And as far as rot resistance, I just dug out some 3 year old manzanita from a hugel because it just won't go soft! It's like it is rising to the surface and making it hard to plant in there.

Oh and Arbutus is my favorite tree! They are wierdly similar, they are both red, burn crazy hot and shed their skins like a snake. OK Sorry for the hijack everybody!

I love the topic of bent trees. The British used to search the New England forests and mark certain bent trees for the bow portion of a ship's keel and other curvy pieces. Hedge laying and living willow fences/sculptures are some ways that we purposely bend trees to our will. In the last year I’ve had success in shaping my trees by simply tying rope to the branch and pulling it to where I want it. When I first do it the rope is under a lot of tension but when I go back a month or so later the rope becomes slack as the fibers of the tree adjust to their new shape. It's such great fun!