What is a burl?
This photo is a great picture of a burl that is in it's initial formulation process. This particular cross section is from a small birch tree that, in it's growth, picked up a four or five inch string of gravel and pebbles. An introduction of gravel into the tree could easily have occurred if the small tree were lying against the ground. In such a position the tree could have developed with the foreign matter actually growing inside the tree.
| Note the brown disfigurement above the gravel. What has
happened here is that the minerals from the gravel began to leach into the wood and the
stimulus caused the tree to contort in the unusual brown grain pattern that you see.
Given continued growth for say, another ten or fifteen years, the growth would have
swelled into a large (and ugly) bulge on the tree. That bulge would have been a full
grown burl. The one you see is the internal, initial burl. Burls may also be stimulated by other irritants. Insects, bacteria, or other variants introduced into the biology of the tree may start the burling process. The process itself is an attempt of the tree to slough off the stimulant and if the matter cannot be sloughed off it will be left in place and the tree will attempt to circumnavigate around the foreign material.
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The unnatural process of a tree forming a burl does leave for careful driftwood aficionados the delight of exploring for and finding wonderful agate like textures and grains in many driftwood pieces that may be crafted into furniture and many other craft items.