Tree Growth Striation| Growth Crack| Growth Split

Eric Frei

Often people think their tree is split when they see these long fissures.

There's not a lot of information out there but basically what happens is that during periods of extreme growth (moisture) the tree grows and expands faster than the bark and a crack appears.

Here we disected a forest red gum, the bark was some 30mm thick and down at the base (trunk flare) over 50mm thick.

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Sean Freeman

Good pics, and yes a common mistake.....interesting to see further down the trunk near the ground though..almost looks like the rolls of woundwood....do you have any pics?

Eric Frei

I dont have any palm pics handy, some palms get some real big ones!

No pics closer to the base but no woundwood, all pretty normal with a few chunky bits of the sock they sometimes have.

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TrevMcRev

Good pics Eric, i get call outs for this all the time.
I liken them to stretch marks, expansion at a great rate and the bark can't keep up, just like when some packs on the pounds too quick
If you dont mind i'll keep a copy of that in my consult folder to show the dissected piece. I find people have a lot greater acceptance of your diagnosis when you can show a visual example of the same thing.

Apocalypsse

I havent seen these for a while on the job, have seen them in palms, like really huge splits. On a couple it was just growth but the other one was cracked, the whole thing moved when the wind blew, the ground around the tree moved with the wind.

Eric Frei

The last 2 years here have been a record wet so the trees have swollen up fast and many have these. Often also seen on the tops of low large branches where it's packing on the reaction wood for tensile support.

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