The Stunted Hand of Nature.

I came out of my Friday clinical site this evening casting my eye around for Blip material and noticed this tree trunk growing in the parking lot. At first, it caught my attention because the trunk had quinfurcated almost in a single plane and it made me think of an engine exhaust manifold or perhaps some organ pipes. When I looked at the photograph on the bigger screen, however, it seems more like a stunted left hand with a much malformed thumb. If this were a PA (posteroanterior) x-ray of a patient's hand, the radiologist would have a great deal to say about the malformations in the report... The lichen growing on the dorsal aspect of the "hand" just adds to the creepiness.