Epicormic Growth - A condition without and ID

General
1

I came across two trees in different locations that have bumps with growth of up to 30 buds and branches actually growing from them in multiple places. I first noticed and recorded an extreme example in iNat: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/253009852

This is a condition called epicormic growth. According to Copilot, it can be from:

  1. Stress Response: The tree could be reacting to environmental stress factors like drought, physical damage, or nutrient deficiencies.
  2. Genetic Predisposition: Some trees are genetically inclined to produce more epicormic shoots.
  3. Disease or Pests: Fungal infections, bacterial diseases, or pest infestations can trigger the tree to produce these shoots as a survival mechanism.
    There is a nice YouTube Epicormic Growth Explainer video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJfFDpG6On4
    A number of other sources such as Wikipedia cover Epicormic Growth.

I noticed that iNaturalist doesn’t have a category for identifying epicormic growth. Does this merit an iNaturalist ID so that the condition can be recorded and sorted on?

2

Epicormic growth is simply a growth habit, only if it is caused by an organism separate to the tree would it merit an ID. That would be hard to know for sure, and is usually not because of disease or pests. The most obvious cases are called witch’s broom. You can mention presence of epicormic growth in the observation notes, or in a comment, or as a observation field

I think your problem is this:

There are plenty of reliable sources other than a large language models which some wouldn’t even consider a source, more of a hearsay generator.
While what it said is not entirely incorrect, it doesn’t explain what it is, and misses some causes. Sorry, I know you didn’t ask for it, this is a personal problem I have with people using “AI” as an educational tool, it decreases research skills.

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Protea witch’s broom is so common here I have forgotten to make an obs for my life list. No annotation available, but we go straight to the sp ID anyway. Fasciation is sort of similar.
Depending on the known cause, you can ID.

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I appreciate your directness and agree whole heartedly with everything you said. I found it a proper home now in the existing Observation Field, “Canker/Galls/Burls”. Thanks for the help!

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