Treethedral

Braided figs and other braided plants, are intricately beautiful, there is almost a sculpted, architectural quality to them. When the trees are young, the flexible green shoots are woven together in a braid, and as the tree grows, the braided branches entwine with each another, forming a single living trunk which still has the appearance of being braided. I’ve even seen them with objects woven into them, golf balls and such, if the object could grow in size as the tree did, quite a large hollow could be created once it was removed.

Working with these plants in my father’s nursery when I was young, had me thinking about what a fully grown tree would look like if it had been continually braided over the course of its life or better yet several trees braided together to form a living gazebo. If constantly tended and trained, you could create geometric patterns, archways, and windows. The end result would be an incredible landscaping feature, but would probably take twenty years or more to complete.

This made me wonder what would happen if the process was taken further. . The trees I had in mind for this undertaking are weeping willows or baobab trees, whose immense stature and dense profusion of flexible branches would make for an almost unlimited amount of raw material to work with.

Once the original ring of trees has almost reached maturity, a second ring of trees would be planted around the first, as well as one or more in the center, each individually braided but also woven back onto the whole, and spaced far enough apart that their roots would not grow together. Again, twenty or so years go by, and yet another ring is planted and braided. Meanwhile the second planting will have become entangled with the first, and should also become slightly stunted and hunched from not being allowed to grow in all directions.

Ok, so the next planting is almost ready to be started. I am safely in my grave and my children have now taken over stewardship of this interwoven grove of willows, on the back forty. This is where my knowledge of horticulture falls short, but I think that if the number of trees in the second planting is enough to carry the weight of the first, then it should begin to lift the original trees out of the ground, root ball and all. If you have ever seen a tree just sort of nudging the foundation of a house out of its way, or splitting solid rock you will know that this is not that far fetched. The process could be accelerated by helping the trees to be uprooted. Digging perimeter trenches at the size the root ball would hold, and planting various, smaller plants would help stabilize this, soon to be airborne, patch of lawn.
Now the real fun begins, even though I would not be alive to see it.

Throughout the next series of plantings; walk ways, woven net landings, and rain shelter areas are created. Other plant species are grown from the root balls or grafted on to new growth for color, shade and support. Eventually, (say six, maybe seven hundred years later), you’ve got yourself one heck of a tree fort/ tourist attraction.

When I finaly complete my time machine, I'm going to take a week and grow one of these.