Unique Tree on Georgia AT

That is unusual...I think you bent that tree.

I have seen a tree or two like that, but cant' explain how it happened.

Indians used to shape trees to point in certain directions, like north, or where a tribal meeting was being held. This one is really cool.

I\'ve seen this tree several times and once stopped to study it for awhile. http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5768&nocache=1

What you\'re looking at is a natural graft.

There are two different trees, in fact two different species of trees, pictured. One is an elm, the other an oak but I can\'t remember which is which. Let\'s say the trunk on the right, the one forming the arch, is the elm and I believe that\'s right. It was somehow bent and collided with the upright trunk of an oak on the left, maybe when yet another tree fell on it. The two trunks intertwined, grafted together, and grew upright from the point of contact. In summer you can see that there are two different types of leaves growing from each half of the upright trunk, and upon even closer inspection you can see that there are two different types of bark on the upright trunk after the intersection.

The division is visible just above the intersection of the arched trunk and the upright trunk. Notice how the upright trunk below the intersection has smooth bark, the arched trunk has rough bark, and above the intesection the left side of the upright trunk is smooth and the right side is rough.

i stopped and took a shot of this a month or so ago...it was about as foggy as it can get and that tree had an eery feel to it....nice shot