# Hungry trees swallow bicycles and even a motorcycle. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2013, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812 "2013-01-02T07:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/1 "2013-01-02T07:38:42Z")
[Amazing photos](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255706/Amazing-images-bikes-left-long-trees-them.html). My uncle had a very old Oak in his pasture with barbwire buried at least 8 inches into the tree. At one time, decades in the past someone had a fence running along there and used the tree as a post. They must have cut the wire and there was about six inches sticking out on each side. The rest buried in the tree. I have a picture of it somewhere in a photo album in mom’s attic. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/2 "2013-01-02T07:45:36Z")
Where’s Bombadil when you need him? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/3 "2013-01-02T07:48:41Z")
Aww, they don’t appear to be doing much [looming](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=632722) though. ☹ CMC ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/4 "2013-01-02T11:46:29Z")
Wow, they’re really pretty! I have seen trees with barbed wire incorporated in them too, and sometimes trees that seem to become part of a wooden fence. But I can’t get over those bicycles, they’re like works of art! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/5 "2013-01-02T12:46:26Z")
I’ve seen street signs that were engulfed by the trees they were attached to, and also clothesline mounts. My own oak tree is in the proces of trying to swallow my clothesline now, in fact. I haven’t sen any bikes “eaten”, but I’ve sen plenty of fences that were “absorbed” by trees. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/6 "2013-01-02T13:40:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > [Amazing photos](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255706/Amazing-images-bikes-left-long-trees-them.html). > > My uncle had a very old Oak in his pasture with barbwire buried at least 8 inches into the tree. At one time, decades in the past someone had a fence running along there and used the tree as a post. They must have cut the wire and there was about six inches sticking out on each side. The rest buried in the tree. I have a picture of it somewhere in a photo album in mom’s attic. My uncle was actually responsible for that first bike (Vashon Island in Washington State)-it is actually a girl’s bike, and when he got it for his birthday he was so embarrassed that he just stuck it on top of a sapling in the woods and forgot all about it. Years later people discovered the bike embedded in the tree as you can see, he found out about it and went, “Oh yeah…”, and it became a minor tourist attraction. The theories in the article aren’t quite correct. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/7 "2013-01-02T14:05:43Z")
Okay, you’re officially **John DiCool** now! Great story. I think next time I build some fence I’ll intentionally incorporate living trees into the mix. And bicycles… kind of like your own little Cadillac Ranch, only with Schwinns. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/8 "2013-01-02T14:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool;15852968] My uncle was actually responsible for that first bike (Vashon Island in Washington State) [/QUOTE] :eek: Awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/9 "2013-01-02T15:12:50Z")
OK, I was wondering how it ended up off the ground, since trees grow from the top, not from the bottom. Someone deliberately hanging it up in the tree would account for it. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/10 "2013-01-02T22:15:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, I was wondering how it ended up off the ground, since trees grow from the top, not from the bottom. Someone deliberately hanging it up in the tree would account for it. This is what I was wondering too, and they show several examples of bikes suspended off the ground. ---
**Author:** ![ilikedata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/da6949/32.png) [@ilikedata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ilikedata)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/11 "2013-01-02T22:21:18Z")
What amazes me most is that there are enough instances of this happening that it became a news story ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/12 "2013-01-02T22:26:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, I was wondering how it ended up off the ground, since trees grow from the top, not from the bottom. Someone deliberately hanging it up in the tree would account for it. Yes, that was what made me doubt the story too. ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/13 "2013-01-07T02:10:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My own oak tree is in the proces of trying to swallow my clothesline now, in fact. For the greater good, you must set up a web cam and maintain it for the next 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/14 "2013-01-07T17:22:22Z")
I know of a local ice cream shop where, at the back of the parking lot, a cluster of trees is in the process of “eating” a steel fence post. Also, in my neighborhood, there used to be a tree with a big cement cinder block embedded in it a good 5 feet or so off the ground! That tree seems to have been removed a few years ago, because I can’t find it anymore, and it was fairly conspicuous. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hungry-trees-swallow-bicycles-and-even-a-motorcycle/645812/15 "2013-01-07T17:47:04Z")
I know of a skinny type automotive tire, pre-WWII, that is half sucked into a tree in Arizona.