Photos of Amazing Trees with Fantastic Trunk shapes - Facts Analysis

Story:

Subject: Fw: Amazing Tree Growth

These trees were grown in Santa Cruz, CA the year unknown, but the man that grew them never told any one how he did it.

Then in around 1999 the owner of Nob Hill foods in Gilroy, CA moved them to his park in Gilroy and they are doing well.

Photos of Amazing Trees with Fantastic Trunk shapes

Analysis:

These pictures showing amazing trees with fantastic trunk shapes were circulating largely through emails. The messages also claim that these trees were grown in Santa Cruz, CA by a man who never told anyone how he did it. Further it is said that these are moved by the owner of Nob Hill foods to his park in Gilroy, CA.

It is a fact that these trees are genuine ones grown with interesting trunk shapes, but the description that comes with the message is inaccurate. These amazing trees were actually grown by a Californian farmer named Axel Erlandson for over a period of 40 years using grafting techniques of a particular group of trees called Sycamores. In fact, during the period of 1940’s and 1950’s many of these were featured in Ripleys Believe it or not and many other popular magazines. Following his death in 1964, Mark Primack and others tried to save few of his creations. Then in the year 1984 Michael Bonfante bought and relocated these trees for this horticulture theme park named Bonfante Gardens. The official website of Bonfante gardens calls these amazing ones as circus trees and quotes

“This botanical adventure began in Hilmar, California in the 1920’s when Axel Erlandson (pictured at top right), a farmer by trade, observed the natural grafting of two Sycamores. His first major project consisted of fusing four Sycamore saplings into a cupola he named the “Four-Legged Giant.” Using intricate grafting techniques, Erlandson wove his wonders with threads of living wood. Straight tree trunks became complex and compound designs in shapes like hearts, lightning bolts, basket weaves and rings.”

Therefore, these amazing tree pictures with fantastic trunk shapes are genuine ones, but the description is not a fact.