If you've ever seen two trees in intimate contact, you've witnessed inosculation
If you've ever seen two trees in intimate contact, you've witnessed inosculation
If you've ever seen two trees in intimate contact, you've witnessed inosculation
This is called inosculation: when branches or roots of different trees are in prolonged intimate contact, they often abrade each other, exposing their inner tissues, which may eventually fuse.
It's not so much one tree feeding another as the formation of a new hybrid organism.
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The thinner tree was cut years ago and the big one has been holding and feeding it since then. They "wake up" together in the spring and "go to sleep" together in the autumn.
#Tiredearth #biodiversity
In this case, it looks like two beeches (which are partial to inosculation) fused their limbs. Later, the smaller tree's roots/lower trunk were cut away, yet it survived by continuing to exchange water and sugars with its other half. It had already become part of something bigger
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