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Mysterious Forest Of 400 Crooked Trees In Poland Is Still A Mystery For Scientists
There’s a small grove of regular pine trees in West Pomerania, Poland, that has become famous because of one little “twist” – all 400 of the trees located there have a strange bend at the base!
The stand of trees was planted around 1930 in what was then Germany. The trees all take a sharp 90-degree turn soon after leaving the ground before sweeping back into an upright position with a graceful curve. Their strange but beautiful nature is captured perfectly in the below photos by Kilian Schönberger, whom we’ve written about before here.
No one is certain how or why the trees were bent, but most believe that it was an intentional, mechanical process. Trees can be manipulated to create naturally bent parts for, beaots, furniture or other applications. Others have theorized that a severe snowfall could have caused the curious phenomenon.
More info: kilianschoenberger.de | Facebook | Instagram | Behance (h/t: colossal)
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What do you think ?
JamesGowdy 10 years ago
maybe the trees where flattened by something when they where saplings and the ones that where not completely snapped grew like this.
wim 9 years ago
“My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day. I told them this story: In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.” ― Tom Waits
OvidiuRadu 10 years ago
no, is not a mystery. They were bend to build boats and ships but the war came and the forest was abandoned and forgotten
PeterS. 10 years ago
There is another natural explanation that is possible. Trees can grow bent in ways like this when they spend a particularly bad winter constantly burdened by snow. Judging by the height of the bends it would have occurred when they were all quite small and because of the simultaneous planting there is uniformity. I've seen this effect in plenty of single trees.
JosephGormley 10 years ago
Not all the trees are bent. I can see several perfectly upright trees in the background.
Linda Hart 5 years ago (edited)
Farmed trees to make alpine horns. OR Trees were blown over when they were smaller then grew upwards.
Kevin Braid 7 years ago
it is not a mystery, they found documents a while back that explained this, was for building stuff with wood, cant remember if it was furniture or boats tho. i live like 15km from it and still not been there
Peter Cooke 9 years ago
They are grown like this deliberately by shipwrights for.ribs of wooden boats and ships
Karen Wesley 9 years ago
Maybe the trees were alive at one time and doing the Hula hoop around their waist and that's what caused the curve.
piotrnykowski-pozaokiem 10 years ago
it's not a mystery, trees were growing very close to russian Radio/ Radar Station. this is the effect of magnetic field
GyulaPlesa 10 years ago
have you seen the Hoia-Baciu forrest in transylvania? looks very very similar
MelodyLanzatella 10 years ago
ALL plants grow TOWARDS light, hence, obviously at certain times the light was coming strongest daily from a specific direction. Additionally, wind and other weather factors also play a part.
HaniaUsarewicz-Sacher 10 years ago
Holy cow, there's no mystery, because there was a factory of rocking chairs before second war and they was bending these trees specially... -_- greetings from Poland!
HaniaUsarewicz-Sacher 10 years ago
Holy cow, there no mystery, because there was a fabric of rocking chairs before second war -_- And those trees were specially bended for that. Greetings from Poland!
TomiSeppänen 10 years ago
No mystery. Back in old days people used to bend young trees into desired shapes to get material for future crafts and needs. These for example, could be bent years ago by a boatbuilder for boat sterns and ribs...
TomiSeppänen 10 years ago
Well, no mystery to me. In old days when methods of woodworking were more limited, people actually used to make this kind of material storages out of young trees... When bent to shape still flexible, they stayed like it and grew into the desired curvees. They were used, for example, boat sterns.
EmilWoźniak 10 years ago
That is an effect of work Polish carpenters, they bend those trees, and when they grow up carpenters have curved wood ready for work. Pozdrawiam z Polski :)
GlynisLailann 10 years ago
I surmise that this forest was a field before, where army manoeuvres took place and the saplings were either trampled or bent by vehicles. The trees obviously continued to grow undisturbed.
LynneFindley 10 years ago
The trees were started as seedlings in pots. In the first year in the pots, the soil packed down before the sapling trunk hardened off. The tiny "trunks" did this in response. I've made the same mistake, but those mistakes are still in pots. I've been thinking they might make good bonsai...? This forester, just went ahead and planted them. Or perhaps those same conditions might have been created in a natural forest, but these trees are very regular in their spacing.
EricPaardekooperOverman 10 years ago
A possibility: Terrestrial radiation by underground water currents and the like creates curving and twisting trunks.
DariusTumas 10 years ago
There is no any mystery with that. Thous trees where planted for ship building and grown as that. And it was revealed ages ago. Use google before posting unrelated titles for photo collections. https://www.google.lt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=trees+for+ship+building
KláraTreczker 10 years ago
As a forest engineer I think it was caused by a fungus called Melampsora pinitorqua - pine twisting rust in English.
KláraTreczker 10 years ago
As a forest engineer I think it was caused by a fungus called Melampsora pinitoqua.
NidhiChopra 10 years ago
such bending can happen due to direction of sunlight, wind, water flow, nutrient flow - inside or outside plant/tree (their surroundings).
AlicjaKracz 10 years ago
No, it's in Poland, near Gryfino i the west of the country.
Load More Replies...
JamesGowdy 10 years ago
maybe the trees where flattened by something when they where saplings and the ones that where not completely snapped grew like this.
wim 9 years ago
“My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day. I told them this story: In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.” ― Tom Waits
OvidiuRadu 10 years ago
no, is not a mystery. They were bend to build boats and ships but the war came and the forest was abandoned and forgotten
PeterS. 10 years ago
There is another natural explanation that is possible. Trees can grow bent in ways like this when they spend a particularly bad winter constantly burdened by snow. Judging by the height of the bends it would have occurred when they were all quite small and because of the simultaneous planting there is uniformity. I've seen this effect in plenty of single trees.
JosephGormley 10 years ago
Not all the trees are bent. I can see several perfectly upright trees in the background.
Linda Hart 5 years ago (edited)
Farmed trees to make alpine horns. OR Trees were blown over when they were smaller then grew upwards.
Kevin Braid 7 years ago
it is not a mystery, they found documents a while back that explained this, was for building stuff with wood, cant remember if it was furniture or boats tho. i live like 15km from it and still not been there
Peter Cooke 9 years ago
They are grown like this deliberately by shipwrights for.ribs of wooden boats and ships
Karen Wesley 9 years ago
Maybe the trees were alive at one time and doing the Hula hoop around their waist and that's what caused the curve.
piotrnykowski-pozaokiem 10 years ago
it's not a mystery, trees were growing very close to russian Radio/ Radar Station. this is the effect of magnetic field
GyulaPlesa 10 years ago
have you seen the Hoia-Baciu forrest in transylvania? looks very very similar
MelodyLanzatella 10 years ago
ALL plants grow TOWARDS light, hence, obviously at certain times the light was coming strongest daily from a specific direction. Additionally, wind and other weather factors also play a part.
HaniaUsarewicz-Sacher 10 years ago
Holy cow, there's no mystery, because there was a factory of rocking chairs before second war and they was bending these trees specially... -_- greetings from Poland!
HaniaUsarewicz-Sacher 10 years ago
Holy cow, there no mystery, because there was a fabric of rocking chairs before second war -_- And those trees were specially bended for that. Greetings from Poland!
TomiSeppänen 10 years ago
No mystery. Back in old days people used to bend young trees into desired shapes to get material for future crafts and needs. These for example, could be bent years ago by a boatbuilder for boat sterns and ribs...
TomiSeppänen 10 years ago
Well, no mystery to me. In old days when methods of woodworking were more limited, people actually used to make this kind of material storages out of young trees... When bent to shape still flexible, they stayed like it and grew into the desired curvees. They were used, for example, boat sterns.
EmilWoźniak 10 years ago
That is an effect of work Polish carpenters, they bend those trees, and when they grow up carpenters have curved wood ready for work. Pozdrawiam z Polski :)
GlynisLailann 10 years ago
I surmise that this forest was a field before, where army manoeuvres took place and the saplings were either trampled or bent by vehicles. The trees obviously continued to grow undisturbed.
LynneFindley 10 years ago
The trees were started as seedlings in pots. In the first year in the pots, the soil packed down before the sapling trunk hardened off. The tiny "trunks" did this in response. I've made the same mistake, but those mistakes are still in pots. I've been thinking they might make good bonsai...? This forester, just went ahead and planted them. Or perhaps those same conditions might have been created in a natural forest, but these trees are very regular in their spacing.
EricPaardekooperOverman 10 years ago
A possibility: Terrestrial radiation by underground water currents and the like creates curving and twisting trunks.
DariusTumas 10 years ago
There is no any mystery with that. Thous trees where planted for ship building and grown as that. And it was revealed ages ago. Use google before posting unrelated titles for photo collections. https://www.google.lt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=trees+for+ship+building
KláraTreczker 10 years ago
As a forest engineer I think it was caused by a fungus called Melampsora pinitorqua - pine twisting rust in English.
KláraTreczker 10 years ago
As a forest engineer I think it was caused by a fungus called Melampsora pinitoqua.
NidhiChopra 10 years ago
such bending can happen due to direction of sunlight, wind, water flow, nutrient flow - inside or outside plant/tree (their surroundings).
AlicjaKracz 10 years ago
No, it's in Poland, near Gryfino i the west of the country.
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