In interior Alaska and some parts of Canada, witches' broom (an abnormal outgrowth of branches of the tree resembling the sweeping end of a broom), is commonly seen on black and white spruce trees. From late fall through the winter, the brooms are dark brown or "dead"looking and are often mistaken for birds' and squirrels' nests.
The Morning Journal: International Trees and Trains exhibit drawing crowds at Ariel Broadway Hotel
Interior Alaskan forests have only six native tree species: white spruce, black spruce, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, larch (tamarack) and paper birch. Northern Canadian forests have all of those, plus jack pine, balsam fir and lodgepole pine. Since northern Canada and interior Alaska share the same grueling climate and extremes of daylength, why are the Canadian tree species absent from ...
It is common for people in interior Alaska and corresponding areas of northwestern Canada to use the name cottonwood when referring to one widespread variety of deciduous tree.
A tree's age can be easily determined by counting its growth rings, as any Boy or Girl Scout knows. Annually, the tree adds new layers of wood which thicken during the growing season and thin during the winter. These annual growth rings are easily discernible (and countable) in cross-sections of the tree's trunk. In good growing years, when sunlight and rainfall are plentiful, the growth rings ...
I eventually found a tree with a spiral lightning mark and it followed the spiral grain exactly. One tree, of course, proves nothing. "But why should the tree spiral? More speculation here: Foliage tends to be thicker on the south side of the tree because of better sunlight.