Witches' Brooms in Scots pine and birch
Mike Phillips, a former research head forester at Newton, published a paper on Witches’ Brooms in Scottish Forestry in 1994. A copy of the articles he wrote is contained in the attached PDF above which describes the size of one particular ‘broom’ and also some of the research work carried out on trying to find a cause for such growth abnormalities.
Mike writes -
‘I first saw a most remarkable example of a so-called “Witch’s Broom” in 1960. This was on land, at that time, on the estate of Major Brodie of Lethen, but now owned by Mr A. Lain of Culmony Estate, Moray.
The dimensions of the broom, which is very healthy and growing on an old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L), of uncertain age but probably in the region of 200 years is quite enormous. It measures approximately 6 m x 6 m and is over 2 m in depth almost to the exclusion of the host tree. No reference can be found relating to dimensions of witches’ brooms in the literature, however, the sheer size of this specimen must perhaps warrant the title ‘The Largest”.
In January 1962 scions were collected from both the witch’s broom and the host tree and grafted onto rootstocks. The resultant clones can now be seen at the Forestry Commission’s Genetic Research clone bank at Newton in Morayshire’.
Groups: Forest Research, Forestry Areas