It is slow around here and it entertained me. If one person is also entertained by this, I will consider it a success.

==>> oh God its so slow.. lol ...

ever hear of the hoot owl trail .... check out the link.. some real speculation on the development of weird trees ... [not to mention rocks]

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: this ought to keep you busy for a while.. lol ...

Thanks, Ken. That link makes want to go outside and explore some more ;)

I spent and hour and a half today on that trail with the hackberry and barely made it back to work on time haha

And get rid of that japanese honeysuckle while you're at it!

I would have if I had some pruners with me, esh! I was out in the river bottoms on a bike trail when I saw it. I don't think I could eradicate all the HS there! It was depressing seeing how the only green leafy plants were privet and the dense understory they form is readily apparent with the rest of the plants still leafless. I can't help but wonder what it would look like in a natural setting with all the privet absent

If you look at the tree in upper left corner of the third pic, it looks like a tall tree in the background also has something funky going on.

Is Japanese honeysuckle the honeysuckle that is everywhere and produces my mist favorite of summertime smells?

I sure hope its American honeysuckle!

Nope, native American honeysuckle usually blooms red and doesn't have much smell. But the hummingbirds love it.

John, I suspect all those forms are due to vines having wrapped around those trees when they were saplings. The vine are gone now, but the shapes linger.

Japanese honeysuckle is pretty shallow rooted and I find it easy to rip from the ground by hand, especially in the spring when the ground is damp.

"Japanese honeysuckle is pretty shallow rooted and I find it easy to rip from the ground by hand, especially in the spring when the ground is damp."

Didn't know that, thanks. That would certainly be a more permanent removal method than just snipping it near the ground, too. I may not get a chance to try it on the misshapen hackberry, but I can sure try it at home ;-)

That leads me to a question. I have been removing honeysuckle and numerous other vines from trees in my woods. Japanese honeysuckle is by far the worst at "sinking into" the bark of other trees. What I assume is happening is the honeysuckle is more rigid and less forgiving when dealing with trunk expansion of the host tree. Maybe due to the wrapping nature of this vine compared to the nearly vertical climbing of poison ivy and virginia creeper. Anyways, when I remove it, it leaves an indention around the trunk of the host tree. Would it be OK if I left the vine to be callused over by the tree or should I remove as much of the vine as I can (this is what I have been doing) so the tree can callus and heal into itself?

I bet after a few years this would make a really neat cross-section for hort students to try to ID what happened to the tree (if they do that sort of thing in school). I would love to see the growth rate of the lower trunk compared to that of the encapsulating growth by comparing growth rings, myself.

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Thu, Mar 14, 13 at 9:30

So, what fragrant Honeysuckle is not a rampant grower? I have a fragrant vine Honeysuckle growing that is supposed to be UN- Agressive. My Support for it has failed, so I need to find a support for it.