Starved Rock State Park, #13
Joe, our guide, explained these strange basketball-sized growths on various tree trunks in the park. They're burls, and they're what the burled wood in luxury car interiors and fine furniture are made of. Now you know why they're used as insets instead of large expanses of wood.
They're caused when wasps lay their eggs in tree trunks, depositing fungus in the process, which irritates the tree to the point where it deposits wood around the irritant, something like an oyster does with a grain of sand to create a pearl. So, basically, those beautiful swirls on the wood of your antique side table come from this wart of the botanic world.
Starved Rock State Park, #13
Joe, our guide, explained these strange basketball-sized growths on various tree trunks in the park. They're burls, and they're what the burled wood in luxury car interiors and fine furniture are made of. Now you know why they're used as insets instead of large expanses of wood.
They're caused when wasps lay their eggs in tree trunks, depositing fungus in the process, which irritates the tree to the point where it deposits wood around the irritant, something like an oyster does with a grain of sand to create a pearl. So, basically, those beautiful swirls on the wood of your antique side table come from this wart of the botanic world.