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Name: Linda
Status: other
Grade: other
Location: DE
Country: N/A
Date: 6/28/2005
Question:
I have a redwood tree, approximately 80 years old that has a burl that has grown about 10 to 12 feet away in the ground. It has gotten so it is coming up in the lawn. I was wondering if it would hurt the tree if I cut the burl out

Replies:
Some information on redwood burls:

http://www.redwood.national-park.com/info.htm#bur

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/litden/all.html

Perhaps you could end up with more burls if you removed it.

Anthony Brach Ph.D.

Burls are abnormal growth structures on the trunks of trees, frequent on redwoods and sometimes on other species. Something growing up out of the ground away from the tree sounds like the "knees" of bald cypress that grow up from roots. No one seems to know exactly what function cypress knees have, and it does not appear to hurt the trees to cut them. I've never heard of such growths from a redwood.

J. Elliott


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