Two in one?

Bluelens

Ok, so once I can find out what this is I can go into the one of the other areas of the forum to find out what to do with it.

We have a tree in the front yard that has me puzzled. At the base of the trunk there are branches growing out and the leaves produced are nothing like what the tree leaves are.

When you look at the tree it looks like a bush growing around the tree but when I went in to chop away what I thought was a bush I saw all the branches growing out of the trunk. About a month after I cut everything away most of the growth returned to where you couldn't tell I cut anything away.

As you can see in the second picture, there are two different types of leaves on the tree branches, a long narrow leaf and a wide leaf. There are also little 'berries' on the branches as well.

The leaves growing on the bottom of the trunk are the very wide bright green ones as pictures in the third image. Many of these leaves will grow to be 5-6 inches wide. These leaves aren't growing on vines because the last time I went through to cut them down I had to use some lopers to cut the branches they were stemming from.







Any ideas?

blair duncanson

To me that is a Tilia. If it is, they naturally do this bush at the base thing, sometimes it reaccurs at 20ft approx. Great trees for the carver and the bees, messy when climbing. Juvinille(spp) growth is your confusion.

blair duncanson

Not too bad as shade trees also.

treevet

Linden sprout adventitous growth at times from the base but I am not familiar with this thickness. Could the roots or root collar have been injured by lawnmower or digging? I love lindens.

Galbee

spot on treevet.
last time i saw it that bad was in a cemetery where over previous years the contractors had strimmed the hell out of the trees bases.
they are a night mare to keep down now.

treevet

Yeah, Galb, I am currently in a battle of wills with the maint. staff on a large convent property where many trees have died from drought and genetic predetermined life span, etc. and I am in the midst of a planting, restoration program. All the old trees have basal mower wounds and some of my new ones are getting them and the Sisters are reluctant to do battle with the staff.

TreeSpecialist

Lower grade (or mulch) around the base of the tree.

Clip off the root sprouts and leave the root flares exposed and most (if not all) of the basal sprouting will quit.

Planting it too deep or mulching a tree to heavily will cause this problem in a number of trees.

treevet

Plant life will inevitably appear out of the mulch in short order bringing the mower with a human on the dumb end of it back to do it's damage. Stakes or protective fencing is sometimes the only answer in the long run. Wouldn't want to lower grade and damage fibrous roots imo.

treeseer

This is common with linden--2 trees at the isa preconference workshop loop were suckering a lot. clip the suckers low where they originate, otherwise they will thicken at the base and be a bigger problem ie infection court later.

Lindens get heartrot worse than silver maple but they are nice trees; the national tree of the czech republic, attached.

Attached Images

Dendro 9 Tearing Tilia.pdf (609.1 KB, 27 views)

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Guy Meilleur | Forensic Arborist | Better Tree Care

treevet

Yes, we often discuss the infections related with topping, internodal cuts, flush cuts, and many other wounding incidents. Seldom do we mention the triggering of adventitious sprouting (that comes along with this) which often do not survive or persist and become a vector for infection as well.

Bluelens

Thanks for all the info.

I will have to go back into the jungle and see if I can cut closer to the base to help stop the growers from sprouting again.

I think there might be other issues with the tree (I hope not though) that I will have to bring to the table when I can get in closer to take some pics - ie remove the sprouts. But I will bring those questions to the right area of this forum when the time comes.

Sylvatica

Definitely a Tilia(we call them Limes over here). Its usually the hybrids that sucker like this,pain in the neck that is.

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TrueBlacktopp

the one thing that you also have to reember is that almost 99% of nursery grown trees are grafted, so lots of times at the graft point, if it was do incorrectly or that it wasnt even grafted to the same roots as the tree species then that can cause such effect on trees