Cherry Self seeder

Clearing an old scrap yard for development and we came across this amazing self seeder,

a mature Cherry tree (Prunus spp)  in an old oven. Was it from a Cherry Pie?

Photos by Adrian, a Pembrokeshire Tree Surgeon’s Busman’s Holiday in Coventry with his son Joshua.

The arching of main stem is most likely as the sapling failed repeatedly from a week root system, yet one or more the anchor roots kept the tree alive and its stem shape adapted to head for the light.

The main buttress root wood of sensed the water and secure the stem with a compressive force and then

maintaining a root system at ground level.

Bizarre how the stem and buttress avoid the oven dials.

These smaller roots are for tension stress.

How at the angle the root stretches to minimise a break at that weak union, intelligence.

After the tree was dismantled the rings were counted and the tree was 28 years old and germinated in 1989.