Trees on Stilts

The wonders of nature are often more than enough to inspire seemingly dedicated engineers like me. The struggle for survival and the strange circumstances that can give a plant an edge are what fascinated my wife and I last weekend. Many trees in one of our favourite mountain areas have truly weird looking root formations - and there are good reasons why.

How does a tree start to grow in a mountain forest, when the soil is often wet and cold (often snow covered) and there is a dense ground vegetation layer? Many start above that dense ground vegetation layer on a mossy stone or decaying wood and grow roots “on stilts” down to the ground.

In the woods above Unterwasser and Alt St Johann in the Toggenburg, they have purposefully left old trees stumps in the ground for the last 60 years. These are notched to accelerate the growth of moss and they also leave discs cut from the trunk lying on the ground. It takes about 20 to 40 years before the trunks are sufficiently decayed and mossy for seeds to germinate. It then takes a further 30 years for the saplings to reach 1.3 metres high and grow strong enough to outgrow damage from grazing animals.

It's wonderful to see the weird and organic shapes of these tree roots as they worm their way down to the ground from off the top of a boulder or tree stump. Most of them have been standing there for decades and can grow to a really decent size despite the altitude and the cold.

This can lead to clusters of plants crammed into a small space....

Snow will clear from the tops of big rocks and old tree stumps before it clears from the ground - that will give a clear advantage so long as there is enough moss to provide moisture in the summer.

Some unfortunately have not got a strong enough root system to resist the strong winds that sometimes rip through the mountains. They finish completely upended, leaving the boulder or decayed trunk exposed to the elements, with all the moss that helped the trees to grow still attached to their root system.

And what an area for walks! My partner in life and co-writer, Sue, who shies away from publicity and will probably delete this picture when she checks the post. Leave it alone girl - you deserve credit!

We feel privileged indeed to be living in such a beautiful, healthy place.

We even found some trees that started life on top of a dry stone wall...

And another tree with a root system that has grown around rocks...

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