The link for the embedded photo was sent to me by Jennifer Fox, with a request for an explanation, since her web search had not proved satisfactory.
Several possibilities come to mind. It's obvious that the trees were bent when very young, then recovered. Those who live near large lakes with prominent ice heaves will have seen trees affected in this manner, and a similiar effect could occur after a blowdown by straightline winds.
I get the sense that this forest is a tree farm, because of the uniformity of age of the trees, and I suspect this is a man-made curvature, because of the similarity of all the trees involved. If that's true, then my best explanation would be that these trees were trained as "compass timbers" for shipbuilding or as material for other woodworking. See this post from last fall on that subject.
This blog gets about 500 visits a month from readers in Poland; perhaps someone can offer a definitive answer.
Photo credit: tapenade.
Addendum January 2012. One of the curious aspects of blogging is that you never know which posts will be popular or produce sustained interest. I posted the above about a year ago, and it has continued to accumulate hits (40,000 so far!) and comments, so I thought a repost with an update was warranted.
One of the early comments included a link to Discovery News, with a map showing the location of this forest:
The bent trees are in a small suburban area, surrounded by normal trees (evident in some of the photos in the gallery at this link).
Re the etiology, my original postulate was that they were bent by humans for shipbuilding timbers or other woodworking. Others chimed in with suggestions of "gravity anomalies," crop circles, the Tunguska Event (!!), "evil," and tank maneuvers.
I favor the later suggestion that the trees were intended to be used for furniture making in the "German Jugendstil style (1900/30), which is noted for its numerous curvilinear features." Another reader offered a link to this photo of a sledge with curved wooden runners:
According to a couple of webpages in Polish, the trees were planted around 1930. One hypothesis states that they were bent by a carpenter to use for furniture making. They were cut and forced to grow horizontally for a while before being allowed to grow upright. But nobody's really sure. More info here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gryfino.pl/WrotaGryfina/chapter_56734.asp
and
here:
http://www.gryfino.powiat.pl/index.php?show=tur_wane_kras
In Polish, of course, but Google helps to translate. :)
Thank you, Kinga. Furniture would make more sense than ship timbers for the time period.
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I can find on Polish wooden furniture.
Though I have no Polish ancestry, nor speak a word of it (as far as I know), I find one small problem with what Kinga wrote. According to him (or her) the trees were planted in the 1930's, which would make them close to 80 years old, and the photo show trees which are closer to only 30 years old, and based on the girl near the edge, I would say that this is a modern photo. So this cannot be a photo of those trees.
ReplyDeleteDaBris...I was only quoting what the Polish websites had written. I'm no expert on trees, but I am fluent in Polish. If you use Google translate on the first page, you'll see that it states "It's estimated that the forest was planted around 1930".
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is an older photo after all?
Co za asy! Kinga, if you are fluent in Polish, then why would you use Google Translate?
DeleteIt would depend on the type of tree. These look like conifers, so presumably would be reasonably fast-growing and less than 80 years old.
ReplyDeleteBut another interpretation of the source quote would be that the plantation was started in the 1930's and harvested for decades until abandoned more recently, with these being the last crop.
Very many years ago, I remember reading an article in the local newspaper about a local forest where all the trees in a particular area had a bizarre twist to them.
ReplyDeleteAll the trees in this section were saplings when a heavy snowstorm buried and bent them over. Held in this position into spring, the new growth locked the trees in this position. Over the years, the trees grew forward to set themselves upright again, leaving them all with this strange, bend and reverse curve in their lower trunks.
I have a birch tree in my backyard that grows sideways due to being pinched over by a snowstorm forty years ago. It has always been a fantastic shade tree because it covers so much at just the correct angle to the sun through the day.
It could be gravity fluctuations. There is a well-documented spot in the US, in Oregon, where gravity is not vertical but at an angle. The trees there grow at an angle to the trees adjacent to them, which is visible from a distance. Perhaps this spot in Poland had a similar gravitational anomaly when the trees were young.
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like the result of a severe ice or snow storm with high winds.
First thing that came to my mind when trying to figure the trees out were crop circles. Many of the more interesting/mysterious crop circles have the stalks of the crops bent over at a 90 degree angle but the plants are unharmed and still alive. My thinking was that maybe the same thing had happened to a grove of tree saplings. Over time as they continued to grow they straightened out (sorta) and started to grow upwards.
ReplyDeleteDirtpoor's idea about the snow bending them over makes more sense though...
I have seen similar features form on trees that are subject to slope creep (or soil creep). I wonder if this is a possibility?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downhill_creep
As a trained forester and wood scientist, I've seen this a couple of times in my career. But first off, these trees are much younger than 80 years (they were not planted in the 1930s). By their appearance, they look to have been planted in the 1960s or 1970s.
ReplyDeleteThe shape can be induced by laying a heavy object over a 4 to 8 year old tree stem. Phototropism will cause the stem beyond the heavy object to grow toward the sky, while the growing stem beneath and behind the heavy object will develop what is called morphogenetic compression wood - which ultimately makes the curve in the stem permanent.
A second cause is simply heavy snow load combined with a long spring melt. Usually these type of bent trees are seen at higher altitudes, and they are fairly common. The trees become photosynthentically active as the angle of the sun increases during spring. With a snow load still on the stem during this period, however, compression wood forms as the trees grow - resulting in a permanent bend. Eventually, the stem height becomes higher than the snow, so the stem straightens.
Thank you, anon, for an authoratative comment.
ReplyDeleteThat's GMO seeds at work for ya! Welcome to the NWO.
ReplyDeleteGMOs'= Morgellon's illness so if you eat soy, corn, cottonseed or corn (oils or otherwise) this is what it will do to your offspring's spine.
For more info on GMO's visit vimeo and search for Jeffrey M. Smith He has scientists that worked for Monsanto who back up his claims.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"It could be gravity fluctuations. There is a well-documented spot in the US, in Oregon, where gravity is not vertical but at an angle."
The Oregon Vortex is an optical illusion. Let's not gum up this fun discussion with pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo.
"crooked" is less unusual than you think. I visited the ones in Canada, amazing.
ReplyDeletecheck: http://www.google.com/search?q=crooked+trees&hl=en&biw=1034&bih=751&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3erjTd2mIYe8sAP3oq0W&sqi=2&ved=0CC4QsAQ
what King has is correct. The practice started in the 1930's, the art bending trees was perfected by craftmen, I am not sure if it was for ships or furniture. However, the practice as stopped in the area when the forest became a Polish national forest.
ReplyDeleteThe comment about this being from crop circles is complete crap. Why do you still think crop circles are mysterious? They are man-made (Doug Bower and David Chorley made videos on how they made them); check out these links:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzvuqs9Bf7Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_opN9ghPKQ&feature=related
It's like you don't even know the internet exists, though you are clearly using it.
No need to argue, children. Sometimes things are more interesting when surrounded by mystery. Regardless the reason, this is an awesome pic!!
ReplyDeleteI perceive evil when I look at that forest. Evil forests are (as far as I know) very rare, but I believe they exist on every continent.
ReplyDeleteAn evil forest gets it's "evil" from an event in the past. I'd suspect THIS one, being in Poland, got it's evil from something the Nazis did there during WWII.
Since these trees are only 30 or so years old, this goes to show you just how strong evil can be. The evil of the forest has crippled these trees 15 to 25 years after the event!!
Now, I say "evil" has crippled the trees. But that is not really what I mean. The crippling is a "tribute" or "remembrance" of what happened. It's almost more of a reminder of evil than it is a form of or incarnation of evil.
Robert Baptick
Griffin, GA
What is unusual in this photo is the similarity in the format of all the trees.
ReplyDeleteThose are the "serpent Pines" from Leiria Portugal
http://augustomota.multiply.com/photos/album/212/212
http://augustomota.multiply.com/photos/album/35
I grew up in Gryfino (seventies) - this is my little research and explanation. There was a major fighting going on in 1945, area being a staging ground for forcing river Oder, last major obstacle on the road to Berlin only 100km away.
ReplyDeleteA unit of soviet tanks drove over young pines. Snow and mud kept them alive. After healing, they started to grow up. Simple.
Anon, the problem with your explanation is that these are fast-growing conifers (pine trees) that are much younger than 65 years old.
ReplyDeleteI like the "flattened by Soviet tanks" explanation. By their look I'd say these are Scots Pine which grow extensively over this part of Europe and are relatively slow growing.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia: "Scots Pine is an important tree in forestry. The wood is used for pulp and sawn timber products. A seedling stand can be created by planting, sowing or natural regeneration. Commercial plantation rotations vary between 50–120 years, with longer rotations in northeastern areas where growth is slower."
So these trees could easily be just the right age for the flattened saplings story.
Fué una bomba
ReplyDeleteMy theory is that while the ground was still frozen, a blizzard with northward winds, exceeding 70 miles an hour, blew the trees over at the stumps. The frozen ground prevented the roots from lifting out of the ground, so the stumps took all the stress, at the frost line, nearly breaking them off. When the show melted in the spring, the trees began to grow again upward towards the sunlight.
ReplyDelete"Human mechanical intervention." The question is not what but why:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.discovery.com/earth/polands-crooked-forest-mystery-110628.html
Looks like these trees grew that way. Nothing would just bend a full-grown tree at the base of the trunk! Trees are remarkably strong, you know. That's why they make good houses, ships and such! My question would be was this a one-time occurrence or do saplings still grow that way in that forest? A park ranger must know that. These trees are still living, and reproducing, right? It's not the petrified forest or anything? If so, the same conditions that created them would do the same thing to the saplings. If not, it was an unusual historic event, weather phenomenon or something.
ReplyDeleteThe curve of the trees will be due to the Tunguska event.
ReplyDeleteTunguska. Right. 7,767 km away according to Google Maps. No other trees blown down except at Tunguska and here in Poland.
ReplyDeleteRight.
Hello, I have been to Gryfino last May,and took many photographs of the trees, some of them from very close to try to understand.
ReplyDeleteFirst, what is striking is that they look like the trunk has been cut off when they were young and that the side branch that grows when you cut this kind of tree was held down before letting is grow straight up. This is the only way I can explain why the first bending of all crooked trees is at an angle and never a curve.
Second thing to remember: Gryfino, was German when the trees were planted.
So if we want to find information about furniture and cabinet makers who would have used them we should look at German Jugendstil style (1900/30), which is noted for its numerous curvilinear features.
For me this tree farming could have been started as a way to have strong, not carved curves but would have been abandoned with Jugendstil not becoming as popular and everlasting as the growers would have expected... and curves being replaced by the pure straight lines of the Bauhaus.
Anon, I agree with you.
ReplyDelete(Jugendstil is the German term for "Art Nouveau").
I live in Poland and i found that accidently. I didnt even know its in Poland.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the latest anon. My family has been growing Christmas trees in northern WI for over 50 years. We have lots of similar white spruce, balsam fir and domesticated Scots pine that look the same way. They were cut off above the first of second years growth, surviving branches continued to grow, and geotropism forced them to take on a vertical aspect. At Gryfino all but the strongest branch was removed. Easy to replicate if you have the time.
ReplyDeleteI have 70 acres of land and have seen this before. Also land owners that want to cut trees but want further growth will cut the tree just above the first branch (on conifers only) to have growth for a future tree. The branch will then grow up to another tree. Since it is a side branch, it will then grow up, leaving the curvature in the branch. Then, we will have a whole new tree.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gary. A very interesting and sensible suggestion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.terra-z.ru/archives/13641
ReplyDeletebest match
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Sledge.JPG/800px-Sledge.JPG
1) Look close there are trees that are bent AND ones that grow straight near them that appear to be the same size/age.
ReplyDelete2) My grandfather from Poland- wood worker- used to grow trees in his yard in USA and bend them to be used as a living bench or arch way. When asked why he said it reminded him of home - and his father used to do that to make hand rails and other decor for the homes of the wealthy.
3) It is true that slipping land will cause a tree to bend - there are many examples in many places like the slopes of a hill side and near the banks of a rivers. The Rogue River in Oregon has many examples and for the record there are NO similarly bent trees at the Oregon Vortex. The Vortex is an interesting place to visit however.
4) With as many trees in one location some bent so severly at the base others still straight, I suspect it is man caused and I think it was deliberate not accidental.
5) That said it is never going to be proven unless you cut one of the trees and scientificly study the rings and the weather and the history of man's activity in that area.. so just enjoy the view and know somethings just are..
Anon, you might enjoy looking at the links at this post -
Deletehttp://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2008/04/extreme-arbosculpture.html
re your grandfathers' creation of a living bench.
See Kevin McCloud's grand Designs Series 3 episode 3 about Ben Law a woodsman who built his own cruck framed house. He used trees trained into this shape as the roof timbers. The twist on the end enables diagonal timbers cut with tenons to fit squarely into vertical timbers with mortices. his websitewww.the-roundwood-timber-framing-co.ltd.uk features his work, the fourth or fifth picture in the first gallery shows a tenon cut into one of these timbers, it's not very clear, but do watch the grand designs episode , the house is really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Pat Shammon
Interesting photo of that tenon cut in. Thanks, Pat.
Deletewe should send this to mythbusters.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm student of Forestry in Brazil and I confess that this article got my attention!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
Super cool!!
Renatinha Araújo.
www.glamourfeminino.blogspot.com
Twitter: @Blog_GF
There are some pretty strange ideas flying around here! Evil. Sideways gravity. GMO.
ReplyDeleteNo rebutting evil as a cause; this is belief, not subject to logical discourse.
Gravity, by definition, does not exert itself sideways to the source (in this case Earth).
GMO: probably best to start with some basic science reading first. If there is a discussion to be had around GMO plants it has to be rational and fact-based. GMO plants won't make your kids grow donkey ears, nor curved spines.
Growing bent wood for sleigh runners or furniture? If one was willing to really patient, waiting 20-30 years minimum for a tree, I guess some very unusual furniture could be made by deciding to grow bent trees. That's some pretty patient furniture makers. For sleigh runners? Those were made by bending wood; perhaps a bit pedestrian in comparison, but infinitely more practical. Think how hard it would be to make trees grow predictably in the right curve over a 20-30 year timespan, for one thing! Sure you could do it, given enough time and enough effort, but steam bending would be much simpler.
Saplings that were broken but not killed, and saplings that were cut above the first branch are both rational explanations. The latter is, as is said above, not at all uncommon. There are many examples of trees like this in our Coastal BC forests; my family has seen lots of them.
Look up the Dancing Forest in Russia for another good example.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.designboom.com/eng/education/trees_erlandson.html
ReplyDeleteI believe they are enchanted.
ReplyDeleteFirst things first someone knows what tree is it??
ReplyDeleteAntes que nada alguien sabe que clase de arbol es??
Na pierwsze pytanie to ktoś wie co drzewa jest on
Jemand weiß, was Baum es ist
andan mas perdidos que el teniente bello