Strange bedfellows

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS — This Maple tree, between the Fox School and Andrews Nursing Home (Market Square) has a sapling Mountain Ash growing in its crotch, which caught the eye and camera of Patricia Valley of Oxford. According to Phil Ostrosky, of the Maine Forestry Service, this is not a strange mutation or cross pollination event, nor all that unusual. Dirt and debris collect in the crotches of trees and, in this case, a Mountain Ash seed happened to land on the perfect host environment and began to grow. Unfortunately for the Ash, unless transplanted into soil, there will not be enough nutrients for the tree to survive for long. Its roots will not penetrate the Maple tree and they rely solely on what has collected in the crotch.