My wife and I saw the movie ‘Harry Potter.’ Did you see enough broomsticks to last your life? This article is about a natural anomaly. It is called the ‘Witch’s Broom’ and it lives in the Ridgeway and vicinity. Former area naturalist and scientist Ernie Giles, first introduced me to the ‘Witch’s Broom.’ Guess where? At the entrance of the Lower Trail at Marcy Woods there is a tall hemlock on your left. Look up high and you will see a large sphere shaped growth. It’s not a natural growth but an anomaly. Ernie the scientist said something like this. “ A Witch’s Broom is a crowded mass of abnormal branching.” What we had there up in the hemlock were dwarfed little hemlocks. Ernie said that the Japanese cultivate miniature trees through a botanical art called Bonsai. What we had here was an unnatural occurrence.
I have walked this same route in Marcy Woods countless times. I always look up at the Witch’s Broom. Those who have accompanied me know I usually never fail to mention the anomaly. Nature is interesting.
What brings about these thick, lush rapidly growing formations on hemlocks, pines and other evergreens? A Buffalo botanist once told us at the site that there are different theories as to the source of Witch’s Broom. He felt that a virus disturbs the hormonal balance in an elongating bud. The virus stunts the buds growth and generates many lateral (side) branches. The Marcy hemlock holds this dense clump of growth. My photos of the Marcy site didn’t show the “broom” too well.
Rob Eberly, local naturalist, took me to the Thunder bay site of a Witch’s Broom. Rob travels the area through his work and is on the lookout for these anomalies. Call me at 905-894-2417 if you know where one is in the Niagara Peninsula.
Go to the Internet for further knowledge. I typed in ‘Witch’s Broom Virus.’ In a scientific dissertation we read that infectious forms of Witch’s Broom is caused by a virus. Enough said. Look up WAU Abstract no.219
I have walked this same route in Marcy Woods countless times. I always look up at the Witch’s Broom. Those who have accompanied me know I usually never fail to mention the anomaly. Nature is interesting.
What brings about these thick, lush rapidly growing formations on hemlocks, pines and other evergreens? A Buffalo botanist once told us at the site that there are different theories as to the source of Witch’s Broom. He felt that a virus disturbs the hormonal balance in an elongating bud. The virus stunts the buds growth and generates many lateral (side) branches. The Marcy hemlock holds this dense clump of growth. My photos of the Marcy site didn’t show the “broom” too well.
Rob Eberly, local naturalist, took me to the Thunder bay site of a Witch’s Broom. Rob travels the area through his work and is on the lookout for these anomalies. Call me at 905-894-2417 if you know where one is in the Niagara Peninsula.
Go to the Internet for further knowledge. I typed in ‘Witch’s Broom Virus.’ In a scientific dissertation we read that infectious forms of Witch’s Broom is caused by a virus. Enough said. Look up WAU Abstract no.219
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