Knobbly Tree, Marlingford

The weather has been fine this week, providing lots of opportunities for capturing beautiful autumn reds, golds and oranges on camera. While I was out admiring the colours, I happened across this knobbly tree clinging determinedly on to the side of the road just outside Marlingford.

When I showed my photos to a local literary expert (my wife) she was reminded of J.R.R. Tolkien's tree-like creatures, the Ents. The twisting, serpentine roots do seem to suggest that the tree has some mysterious other life where it moves around the countryside unseen by human eyes.

Alan

Stepping back from the roots, you can see that it is actually a healthy looking beech tree without any noticeable burrs or other indications of past or present diseases or stresses other than the land dropping away on the side where the road is. Sorry for leading you here with a misleading title knobbly tree fans but before you shut down your browser and turn away in despair shall we look at the knobbly roots for a while?

It is generally bad news for plants to have their roots exposed above ground like this as the roots are more susceptible to disease from insects, bacteria, fungi, etc. Trees and especially well established trees like this one are less susceptible because of the bark that has developed over its long life. If the bark gets damaged though, the wound becomes a window for infection again. As trees get old its quite common for their roots to reach the surface but the amount of roots exposed on this tree (let's call it Alan) is unusual. It looks like Alan was already well established when the road was built so his tough roots have continued to anchor him very successfully. The road has been around for a very long time though. There are records of the mill that sits further up this road dating back to the 18th century. Perhaps the slope to the road was originally much sharper and has gradually eroded exposing the network of roots.

Marlingford watermill

Although tree roots can grow several metres deep, when you look at the roots of upturned trees here in the UK the root systems tend to be spread out wide rather than deep. If Alan's roots have been gradually exposed by erosion then perhaps that has given him the opportunity to extend his roots deeper as an adaptive response.

An upturned tree

More autumn colours: Euonymus (European spindle)

I turned to two local folklore and fairytale experts (my daughters) for their thoughts. Looking at the photos, they noted that there was definitely something magic about Alan and discerned an eye, a nose and a mouth that I hadn't seen before. 

Update 13th November, 2020

After I posted a link to this page on the Secret Norwich Facebook group Anna Wright added a comment there:

I grew up in Marlingford and this was our spaceship tree (in the 80’s). Leading down from the tree parallel to the road there was a path between the trees which was a great sledging run.

Thanks very much Anna! Its great to find a bit more about the character of the tree. I must admit, I didn't have it down as a spaceship tree. Its more versatile than I could have imagined!

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The video for Radiohead's song There, There offers a sinister, Brothers Grimm tinged explanation for the origin of trees. You'll never be able to look at Sylvanian Families toys in the same way again.