Horse Trees
A mysterious grove of trees in Presqu'ile Provincial Park.
EPISODE NOTES
TRANSCRIPT
There’s a mysterious grove of eastern white cedars in Presquile provincial park. Mysterious because they all look like this. They’re called ‘horse trees’ because they kind of look like they have a place for a saddle.
But what’s actually going on here?
Horse trees happen when the central trunk of the growing tree, or leader, is severely damaged by something early in its growth. One of the secondary branches picks up the slack and becomes the new central trunk.
Horse trees aren’t that uncommon, but so many in one place is. So what could have caused significant damage to the leaders of all these trees at once? Strong, persistent wind? A change in the direction of the sunlight? Insect damage? Deer grazing?
The best guess is a late frost that set in after they had started growing for the season around 130 years ago. That frost would naturally have effected all the trees in the grove the same way. And so one late frost has lead to one of the most popular spots in the park for photography over a century later.