Poland’s bizarre Crooked Forest: what makes these trees bend?

[boingboing]

Originally published at: Poland’s bizarre Crooked Forest: what makes these trees bend? - Boing Boing

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[leicester]

Usually bends like that are attributed to soil creep, but those trees aren’t on a slope:

So I’m going with artificial manipulation, probably by gnomes.

[generic_name]

I’m gonna say gnomes too.

Seems pretty damned obvious.

[tom_donnelly]

I lived on a six acre plot of forest in oregon for a few years and there was a small area where about a dozen trees were like this, but bending in different directions …was kind of freaky, but def cool and mysterious

[zzzz]

[knappa]

Different, but reminds me of these:

Did Native Americans Bend These Trees to Mark Trails?

[mick129]

Weirdness via Popkin

Mysterious Forest EXPLAINED 😱 (crooked trees)

[L0ki]

@boingboing

What has caused the bent trees to grow this way is an unsolved mystery.

Uri Geller, obviously.

[some_guy]

Andy Goldsworthy. Work in progress.

[fuzzyfungus]

It’s ultimately a matter of elvish governance.

When a given realm of faerie has a particularly low CPI; even the trees are crooked.

[MadLibrarian]

We had a tree like that where I grew up, with one limb bent at a 90 degree angle at knee level. Dad always said it was a Native American marker, pointing to a ford on a nearby river. YMMV.

[iquitos46]

Republican trees, crooked as hell

[RadioSilence]

Yeah, I was going to suggest they were grown to make boat ribs but then not needed or forgotten about.
You want the grain to be running along the whole length of the rib for strength. This is often done by steaming straight beams and bending and clamping them into position. Live Oak, a type of evergreen oak, has naturally curving branches and have been used historically for boat building. It looks to me like these trees were half cut through at the base as saplings, bent 90 degrees, and then made to grow in a curve.

[theophrastus]

yes. curious that it’s “forgotten” (hide the source material from others?) but given the localization of affected trees and the location, i’m joining the they were making future boat pieces theory

[snigs]

They’re Entwives. They’re coiled and ready to run and hide once again if the Ents find them.

[Mister44]

Phase 1 - Bend the trees
Phase 2 - ?
Phase 3 - Profit

[MerelyGifted]

[MerelyGifted]

[pedant]I do love it when people say “raises the question,” 'steada improperly using “begs the question.” happy sigh [/pedant]

[KathyPartdeux]

[euansmith]

what makes these trees bend?

Has Uzumaki been seen in the area?