#tree oddities

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

One of these days I'm gonna figure out what's going on with these odd growths. Mostly I see them in hop hornbeams (Ostrya virginiana) and I've been calling them witch's brooms, but that may be something else.

[geopsych]

A couple of oddities from an old magnolia tree: Maybe it's hard to see, but in the top photo, a branch grows from one branch right into another! In the second, two branches part and then grow back together. 

It's possible that these are natural (inosculation), or that someone grafted them.