# A tree grows -- in water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160 "2010-06-14T17:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/1 "2010-06-14T17:07:17Z")
The thread on inexplicable stuff go me to thinking about a weird mystery I encountered a few years ago. I was at a beach, in about 3 feet of water. It was deep enough that I couldn’t touch my hands to the bottom without submerging my face, and I didn’t have my snorkel gear with me. A couple of kids called me over and asked if I could determine what a submerged object was. They thought it might be a tree trunk, but there was no way. It had to be a rock, or a lost part of a buoy or something. I reached down, and it sure felt like a tree trunk. It was a round disk, about 12-14 inches across, firmly anchored in the sand. I sure couldn’t pull it up. It didn’t have any hooks or holes in it. I can’t quite remember, but I think I even felt rings and bark. It was exactly as if a tree had grown there and someone had sawed it off a couple of inches above the ground. The thing is, it was a good 20-30 feet away from the shore. And it’s not like beach erosion had appreciately moved the shore – the beach was pretty much exectly as I remembered it from 11 years before, when I first went there. And even if the shore had moved, I usually don’t see big trees growing in beach sand. Is there any possible way it could have been a tree? Wouldn’t it have long since rotted away? FWIW, this is at [Inkwell Beach](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1434/1189073308_5f71f17dcd.jpg) on Martha’s Vineyard. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/2 "2010-06-14T17:28:58Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > a round disk, about 12-14 inches across Sawed off stump of an old pier piling? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/3 "2010-06-14T17:32:02Z")
Possible a log/stump was adrift, and got beached/partially buried in the beach sand by tides? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/4 "2010-06-14T17:33:08Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Sawed off stump of an old pier piling? Hey, that might explain it! I would have to have been a pretty old pier, but I guess some of them stay preserved for pretty long. It was probably sawed off so it wouldn’t be a danger to swimmers. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/5 "2010-06-14T18:33:25Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Hey, that might explain it! I would have to have been a pretty old pier, but I guess some of them stay preserved for pretty long. It was probably sawed off so it wouldn’t be a danger to swimmers. Even if not a pier, people put posts into the sand for all kinds of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/6 "2010-06-14T18:47:38Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Even if not a pier, people put posts into the sand for all kinds of reasons. I do it sometimes because I like to think someone will find it and think, ‘Who the hell did this get here?’ ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/7 "2010-06-14T18:54:22Z")
That was a drain plug. You didn’t seriously consider pulling it, did you? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/8 "2010-06-14T19:26:37Z")
Damn! Well, we’d still have the Arctic, Antarctic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. Four is still pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/9 "2010-06-14T20:28:21Z")
An example of a tree that commonly grows in standing water (fresh) is [the bald cypress](http://www.peoriaaudubon.org/images/Gallery/2009-05-01_IAS_Golconda/DSCN3217_700_Bald-cypress_209knees.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/10 "2010-06-14T20:57:04Z")
Submerged wood can stay intact for a surprisingly long time: Submerged logs:[http://www.superiorwoods.com/submerged\_wood.htm](http://www.superiorwoods.com/submerged_wood.htm) Basque whaling boat recovered in Labrador: [Red Bay NHS : Labrador Coastal Drive](http://www.labradorcoastaldrive.com/home/35) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/11 "2010-06-14T21:19:24Z")
**old wood in the sea** > [@](#): > > [Seahenge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahenge) or Holme I is a Bronze Age monument discovered in 1998 just off the coast of the English county of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea. It is sometimes described as a timber circle but bears only a superficial resemblance to this monument type. > … > The site was discovered because of the actions of the tide on Holme Dunes, which is gradually wearing away the peat layers to reveal the landscapes laid down many thousands of years ago. In this instance the wooden posts and stump had been preserved in the peat and were revealed at low tides. Since the entire structure had been in an anaerobic waterlogged state for several thousand years, the logs had survived with little damage. In the early Bronze Age… ---
**Author:** ![Khendrask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@Khendrask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khendrask)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/12 "2010-06-15T11:15:17Z")
I live on a man-made lake down here (fresh water), and the area was mostly pine and oak before flooding (some 70 years ago). Most of the stumps are still out there, many still above the water line, though a great number of them have broken off just at the water line. The stumps that remain, are anywhere from 12 to 40 feet tall from the lake bed to the surface, and are still in very good condition. It can make navigation here treacherous. Old trees can stay around a long time if they are submerged. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/13 "2010-06-15T12:10:49Z")
This sounds like a good reason to go back to Martha’s Vineyard with your snorkel gear. > [@lieu](#): > > That was a drain plug. You didn’t seriously consider pulling it, did you? > [@tdn](#): > > Damn! Well, we’d still have the Arctic, Antarctic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. Four is still pretty good. Don’t be ridiculous. The plug was only three feet down. The water would only drain down to that point. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/14 "2010-06-15T12:31:26Z")
> [@Khendrask](#): > > Old trees can stay around a long time if they are submerged. Fun reading about the [Old Man of the Lake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake), a partially submerged tree stump that has been floating in Oregon’s Crater Lake since 1896. ---
**Author:** ![Marmite\_Lover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Marmite\_Lover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marmite_Lover)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/15 "2010-06-15T12:39:07Z")
Could have been a tree. Mangrove grows in the sea. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/16 "2010-06-15T12:46:47Z")
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/coast/pages/5.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/coast/pages/5.shtml) An entire forest there submerged at the end of the ice age and still in parts intact in the sea. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/17 "2010-06-15T14:28:12Z")
I had no idea that wood could stay that well-preserved. And awesome links, thanks! > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > This sounds like a good reason to go back to Martha’s Vineyard with your snorkel gear. Yeah, I suppose I should. All in the name of research, of course. Hey, if anyone has questions about bikinis, I can research those too. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tree-grows-in-water/543160/18 "2010-06-16T00:17:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > This sounds like a good reason to go back to Martha’s Vineyard with your snorkel gear. > > Don’t be ridiculous. > > The plug was only three feet down. The water would only drain down to that point. and the good news is that sooner or later all the oceans would drain-cure for global warming! win! 🙂