Kissing Tree

Well, we survived St. Jude's storm! The wind certainly gave the landscape a hammering, causing a few road closures for fallen trees and floods but on the whole we seem to have come off lightly. If it had come from the east it would have wrecked havoc but, as I'm a little sheltered from the west winds by a nearby hill, I can report one upturned plastic table, an open shed door and that the roof of my neighbours chicken coop few off it's hinges.

I walked the dogs up onto the Downs to see if there was much damage above the house. There's a Beech down at Silent Pool and a few branches littered the footpath, most of which I managed to drag aside. I particularly wanted to check this tree. It lies along the North Downs Way. Although it's clearly visible, on a popular route, few people notice it.

Kissing trees are not uncommon but this is particular and a unique example. A bough was brought down in the wind but fortunately the trees are still standing with little other damage. A kissing tree normally forms when two or more close growing trees or branches touch and, over time bond together. In this case the two trees are united by the low horizontal branch and other branches have fused, visible in the very top of the photo. In this case the tip of a very long flimsy branch may have rooted and grown into the second tree in a process called reiteration...but boy, was it long, I haven't measured the branch, but it is all of 5 meters, if not more.

I may have not explained this coherently. I'm bamboozled by the clock changes again and still have to get a few things done before work. I'll re read and try to make it legible in the morning!