I don’t know if you would consider this a strong tree because it has managed to survive for so long in a blighted condition, or a weak tree because it failed to remain healthy. Which ever you choose, it’s certainly an interesting tree.
From the look of the crooked trunk, it certainly fits in with the rest of the trees at Blue Jay Barrens. This is a Wild Black Cherry. The very top of the tree seems perfectly healthy, but the trunk is far from being in good shape.
Various cankers, sores, bulges and cracks mar the oddly shaped trunk. Globs of golden sap flow out to harden on the loose bark. Not a very pretty sight.
That is, it’s not a very pretty sight until you get close. Sunlight showing through the hardening sap presents the unmistakable image of amber. Well, at least there’s the color and look of amber. Given time and the right conditions, it could become amber in the future.
Insect infestations and fungus infections are the two primary causes of sap flow such as this. Both of those agents may be present here, but I found clear evidence of a borer at work in this tree. The reddish brown grains on the bark and sticking to the sap are fras deposited by feeding insects. I know that the Peach Tree Borer, a moth larva, causes this type of damage to cherry trees, but I’ve never seen that borer attack such a large area of the tree trunk.
Each amber nodule has the consistency of thick gum with a hard exterior coating like a fine glass sheet. Manipulation of the sap causes the coating to develop a spider web of cracks that completely ruin the beauty of the object. I ruined one in my investigations, but left the rest alone.
There are still a couple sections of unaffected trunk. I’ll have to watch in later years to see if the borers move into these areas. Maybe the tree is diseased in a way that signals the borers to lay eggs here, or it could be that the presence of borer activity attracts more borers. My experience with Peach Tree Borers has been limited to ornamental plantings that usually got cut down after they became infested, so maybe those trees would have looked like this one if left in place. Another possibility is that I don’t know what I’m talking about and this damage wasn’t caused by Peach Tree Borers and I’d better just move on before I get into real trouble.
I found it interesting that a neighboring elm put a root up and over the exposed root of the cherry. Perhaps it was just reaching out a sympathetic root to comfort an ailing neighbor.
I don’t know if you would consider this a strong tree because it has managed to survive for so long in a blighted condition, or a weak tree because it failed to remain healthy. Which ever you choose, it’s certainly an interesting tree.
From the look of the crooked trunk, it certainly fits in with the rest of the trees at Blue Jay Barrens. This is a Wild Black Cherry. The very top of the tree seems perfectly healthy, but the trunk is far from being in good shape.
Various cankers, sores, bulges and cracks mar the oddly shaped trunk. Globs of golden sap flow out to harden on the loose bark. Not a very pretty sight.
That is, it’s not a very pretty sight until you get close. Sunlight showing through the hardening sap presents the unmistakable image of amber. Well, at least there’s the color and look of amber. Given time and the right conditions, it could become amber in the future.
Insect infestations and fungus infections are the two primary causes of sap flow such as this. Both of those agents may be present here, but I found clear evidence of a borer at work in this tree. The reddish brown grains on the bark and sticking to the sap are fras deposited by feeding insects. I know that the Peach Tree Borer, a moth larva, causes this type of damage to cherry trees, but I’ve never seen that borer attack such a large area of the tree trunk.
Each amber nodule has the consistency of thick gum with a hard exterior coating like a fine glass sheet. Manipulation of the sap causes the coating to develop a spider web of cracks that completely ruin the beauty of the object. I ruined one in my investigations, but left the rest alone.
There are still a couple sections of unaffected trunk. I’ll have to watch in later years to see if the borers move into these areas. Maybe the tree is diseased in a way that signals the borers to lay eggs here, or it could be that the presence of borer activity attracts more borers. My experience with Peach Tree Borers has been limited to ornamental plantings that usually got cut down after they became infested, so maybe those trees would have looked like this one if left in place. Another possibility is that I don’t know what I’m talking about and this damage wasn’t caused by Peach Tree Borers and I’d better just move on before I get into real trouble.
I found it interesting that a neighboring elm put a root up and over the exposed root of the cherry. Perhaps it was just reaching out a sympathetic root to comfort an ailing neighbor.
