Can a Balsam Tree Predict the Weather.

I used to refer to my horse for weather information:

• If the tail is dry -- the weather's clear
• If the tail is wet -- it's raining
• If the tail is white -- it's snowing
• If the tail is burning -- it's hot
• If the tail is horizontal -- it's windy
• If the tail is gone -- there's a hurricane
• If the horse is gone -- there's a tornado!

Borrowed from Cowboy Bob's Weather Lore. More pithy weather observations there.

I'm not a horse thief--I swear!!

While a tree might be 100%, a dead branch or twig will dry out eventually, as it is no longer being fed by the root system. Try lighting a twig on fire that has been rained on for 3-4 day, then try it with one that has been in the sun for a while. I bet there is a difference.

It makes sense to me that the top of the twig will get more moisture than the bottom, and therefore droop. Conversely, when it is sunny the top side will dry out, shrink more on the top side, and bend upwards.

Kilowatt0, I think your explanation makes more physical sense than anything else suggested. More especially since the "weather stick" is exactly that, a stick stripped of any living green and apparently dry. The physics of the wood and water absorption could account for its behavior.

There are weather responses in other plants, which seem to be based on a purely physiological trigger.

For example Carline thistle or Barometre (aka Cardabelle), which flower opens in sunshine and closes in bad weather - even when the flower is dead and nailed to a door. I have personally seen the ones in my garden open and close the (dead, frozen?) flower in February in response to sunshine or cloudy weather.

Killowatt0 and Artsmith

I would agree with the logic to a point. If you observe living trees like balsam and spruce, you will note a very measurable lifting of the branches (up to 18 inches or so) on days with high pressure vs a lowering of the branches on low pressure days. The sellers do note that the weather wand has a shelf life of about two years. My wand is now 2 years since installed on the deck and it still responds. It is installed under the eave/porch and not subjected to rain or snow at all. My thinking is that it has something to do with the atmospheric pressure but I am not a botanist so I wonder what is the mechanism. If it isn't physical I would look at the chemistry of the wood cell. Perhaps a clue may lie in the Carline thistle you have presented.

Yes, this explanation doesn't work if the branch wand doesn't get wet. This is also true of the Carline thistle, which seems to respond either to light conditions or barometric pressure.

I must admit I'm astonished to hear your description of living fir and spruce raising branches up to 18 inches in high pressure. I have never noticed anything of the kind, although I live in the sticks and look at spruce and var every day of the year! I'm trying to figure out what to use as a reference point, to try and see what I've been missing. (Maybe can't see the lift for the sheer number of branches out there.) It's my impression that spruce always points up, while var tends to be horizontal or downward except for the crown. I'm talking Abies balsamea here, not sure if that's the same fir you are talking about.

I had not paid any attention to the lifting of the branches prior to getting this weather wand thingy. I then noticed that I could mow under my pine trees on the front lawn during sunny days but not on overcast days. My wife started noticing the neighbors trees with the lifting branches. I am guessing on the 18 inch flux but definitely the lift is noticeable. I was raised in Northern Ontario the land of balsam, pine, and spruce trees but never paid any attention at the time. Maybe it only affects isolated trees instead of forests. I have not scrutinized the affect during light or night so I can't comment on any difference but I will try to make an effort to see if there is a difference. That may explain if light plays a role. Atmospheric pressure has a role, I think.

Both you and the person who gave you the branch/twig are commiting a pretty basic logical fallacy. Of course the balsam braanch isn't predicting the weather. That would just be silly. What's happening is that the balsam branch is causing the weather. What you've got yourself there is a rudimentary weather wand.

Just don't wave it three times over a circle of hot stones and you'll be fine.

I do like your thinking outside the box. If what you say is true maybe we can conjure the weather to our liking. I had better not let my evil neighbors get hold of the wand.

What does happen if I wave the wand over the circle of hot stones? Damn, curiosity will likely kill me yet.

I have seen the "Natural Energy Works" site before: http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/yweather.htm

They have some neat items.

This relates to live trees, I have also noted the branch direction on my pine trees with relation to up/fair – down/stormy year round.

In addition, in the summer, when the weather is sunny and clear my poplar, oak, and cedar tree(s) leaves hang down with the dark side showing. Typically, an hour or two before a storm moves in, the underside of the leaves will show turning the tree a lighter shade of green.

To somewhat answer your question, I think live trees (pine and leaf) respond to external forces such as perhaps the pine tree branches respond to barometric pressure and/or humidity whereas the leafy trees seem to respond to up-drafts in the breeze prior to a storm event. (Sorry, no scientific data, just personal observation)

On a weather prediction side note, on the north exterior wall of my milk house, above the man door hangs a very old incandescent fixture with a large porcelain shade. When there is a breeze blowing from any direction, summer or winter and this lamp begins vibrating, producing a tone similar to a low C on an electric organ, I can always count on a heavy rain or heavy snow event within 24 hours.

All I need to see is this and I know that something is coming our way. 7 out of 10 times I take precautions.

Or when these

start doing their mating call. Well, I run to my car and wind up the windows which are opened 11/^1/2 months of the year.

Ears and eyes, the best of spies, Ky.

I suspect the balsam responds more to humidity than to temperature or barometric pressure. Wood expands when wet and contracts when dry.

There seems to be a real perception that WOOD is dead, inert, a mechanical set of formulas and tables....

Trees are living things...

And like all living things they optimise their opportunities and minimise their losses.

In hot dry weather and especially drought, gum trees (Biguntri Australis) turn the edges of their leaves towards the sun, so the trees actually track the sun.

I have a kind of flowering thing growing across my front yard... and when the sun comes up, flowers open and as the sun orbits the earth, and the shade from the trees wheels across the yard, in the shade, the flowers close up and when the shade passes off, they open up again.... all very quick.

The trees are alive and the KNOW what is going on.... and they adapt accordingly.

I believe the female balsam fir ovulate or something similar.

The action should be before the rain so a mechanism should exist for the favourable timing to do so.

Maybe the lifting or dropping is done to expose the seeds.

I grew up in an arid area where the the rain only came when the low pressure trough has moved passed our location. One could predict rain as soon as the barometer started to rise again after the drop.

Maybe the even dry cells contracts in length or width according to pressure and/or humidity.

It's 14degrees F here this AM and the branches are all pretty stiff!

I think I may have a partial explanation. The tree has a conduit system that allows water plus nutrients to be raised up the tree. The raising conduit is called Xylem and the lowering conduit is the phloem. When it is sunny out there is an increase in demand for water. A plant constantly loses water through transpiration and then more so through evapotranspiration. The tree will go to work to increase the water available and try to play catch up with transportation pull.

So my guess is that the tree is lighter in moisture during sunny days and with the lost moisture the branches weigh less and are able to lift so as to expose more branch needles to the air. The moisture deficiency is temporary as the root system will collect more water and contribute it to the tree. But as long as there is warm sunny days the tree will be negative in respect to water content based on normal saturation.

During rainy or wet days the tree's moisture content is maximized and thus the branches weigh more. This creates the droop or drop in branches. Of course if there is no water in the ground during sunny days a droop will also occur as the plant is now stressed and weakened.

All this meandering does not really explain the weather wand as it is a dead piece of wood. I did find out by searching the internet that the wand is actually hung upside down from the way it grows on the tree. My explanatory guess is that the branch is stressed and weakened (lack of moisture) during sunny days and is really drooping (it is hung upside down) when it is pointing up. It is not a complete explanation but seems to fit somewhat. It seems a stretch to think that this branch can really absorb water from the air but that must be what is happening to cause a sag. At least enough moisture is absorbed to cause the apparent droop of the weather wand during wet days. It may also explain why the Maine crafters use only light twigs. I am not putting a lot of faith into my argument but present it anyway.

I have reason to believe this argument that the branch could give a note of evidence to the prediction of the weather as the humidty change is well noted before the storm. As we see in the barometer[?]..Being raised in the Olden time and camping in the Okie woods, I came to trust in the raincrow and the crickets and to this day it beats the millions of dollars worth of equipment and the educated guess..