Witch's Broom

Witch’s Broom Earl Plato

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.
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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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Do I have all my senses this late January? What do you mean, Plato?
I see the wonderful hand of the Creator in the landscape. I take a roasted almond bar from my pocket and taste the nutty flavour. Someone has a woodfire going and that agreeable odour assails my nostrils. Here on the edge of the woods I hear two crows conversing. Something is missing.
Do you know what I mean? There on the right of the snowy trail stand two firmly upright plants. I take my right glove off and brush the snow away. I feel the thick flannel-like leaves. These are two stalwart mullein plants. The softness of the leaves fulfills my sense of feel. I am thankful for my bodily senses.
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Citizens of Fort Erie , it’s been 30 years since the Blizzard of ‘77. We didn’t have Port Colborne author of White Death, Erno Rossi, speak at our January Bertie Historical Society meeting. Erno is a great speaker. We did the next best thing. Seated in a circle as we passed artifacts around I asked the question for each to answer. “Where were you in the Blizzard of 1977?” Erno, we should have recorded the replies for you.
Joan McNeil of Fort Erie, had her husband, Peter, across the border and a daughter trying to make her way home to the town. Peter McNeil went through literally tunnels of snow in Buffalo. Where were you?