Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Witch's brooms found not just on Halloween

witch's broom in balsam fir


Dense masses of weird branches sometimes grow in balsam fir trees behind our home in Nolalu and anywhere in the Boreal Forest. These are witch's brooms.


Before anyone gets a stake and fire ready, let me quickly say they have nothing to do with witchcraft. Rather they are places where a disease has afflicted the tree, causing it to grow spindly branches in all directions.


This cell-altering disease could have been caused by fungi, insects, viruses or even by accident such as when a falling tree bashes into another, leaving a wound where the disease can enter.


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