Gayton

May 2008 – Jane Rock: This yew has been larger than its present girth indicates. In the middle of the first photo is a structure called an internal root or internal stem. This would have begun its development at a time when the tree was a solid cylindrical shape. Removal of a branch facing the church centuries ago would have allowed water to penetrate the trunk and begin the process of heartwood decay. At the same time the tree developed shoots from one of the branches which grew downwards through the decaying centre to the ground. Once in contact with the ground the root has now effectively become a stem, sustaining the very branches from which it originated.