Trees sometimes jeopardise their own structural integrity with their voracious appetite for light. As seen in this veteran oak. The two lower left limbs crossed paths at some point in the past in their quest for light, and, through secondary thickening, their barks were ultimately pressed together. Rather than both limbs continuing with secondary thickening to the point at which one of them pops, tissues fuse together to form one. The lower limb, now carrying a heavier load, and forces that oppose its wood grain, shows signs of fibre kinking long before it failed.
Luckily no one was injured when this oak limb failed, but it underscores the importance of having a tree survey conducted by a professional arboriculturalist from Veon.
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