Osage second growth limbs

[osage outlaw]

I was splitting some osage today and found something interesting.  This might be boring to most of you but I'm fascinated by how osage trees grow and cope with damage.  This tree had the top broke out of it from the hurricane winds that came through here years ago.  The only thing left of the tree was just the trunk with no limbs.  At the top near the broken part was a few second growth sucker limbs coming off of it.  I split one of the limb bases in half and saw how it had grown.  The sapwood was dead above it.

If you click on the pictures it enlarges them.

 

[BOWMAN53]

Well that's weird

[wildman]

Easy to find a ring.

[TRACY]

That's pretty cool how the vascular system adapts to survive. Wonder if the dark brown areas were from the  winds of Ike or another wind event?


Tracy

[osage outlaw]

I'm pretty sure Ike is what caused the top to break.  That's about the only thing capable of snapping an 8" osage trunk.