I'd long suspected that the reason Eastern Europe is so rife with brooms is because of the Chernobyl effect. Interesting to see that I may be right.

~Dave

Dave,
I dont think that between brooms in Europe and Chernobyl may any common connection.

My personal experience in 1987: I sewed a big Pinus wallichiana seedbed of 2 m2. All seedlings were snow white and killed as the seed matter finished.
I saw years ago photos of Pinus sylvestris plantation in Ukraine. I saw there horroristic genetic destruction: 10 meter long lying pines, horror gnomes etc.
25 years ago I saw Picea seedlings in a nursery, which were taken for a time into a Rontgen machine. They were also horrors.

Brooms are not nuclear constructions, but simply bud mutations. Sometimes "helps" a virus them, but these are usually fertile formations. Brooms, which bring cones and seeds are healthy plants. The Witebsk dwarfs are far not plants with destructed genetics, just usual dwarfs. Maybe their mother tree became some problems, but light. ?

Broom hunting is a national sport of Cesko. Many people are collecting brooms there for their home gardens. If they can graft, no one will have infos about the collections. If they collect and let graft at big nurseries as Malik, Valenta, Balatka, Holata etc. - these will be known for others and me too.

Please try to imagine a big company of 50-100-500 people, who were organized by Mr. Malik and others. Since 15 years they discover all possible forests week to week, day to day, and the result is given on statistical grounds. They have an intensive backyard with ten thousands of understocks ready for grafting in any time in the year.

If anyone builts up such like a basement for accepting fresh brooms, will have success. I guess that in the US & Canadian forests may live about 100-200.000 brooms at all. Just someone must pay the bill of the discoveries.

Zsolt

Hi Zsolt!
Why is it not reasonable to believe that, as Dave said, these "bud mutations" could have been brought about as a result of the radiation from the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl?

I too have long thought that this may have been a cause of these "bud mutations" or brooms.

Thanks!

-Sam

Have you the same problem around Colorado ? wehre Jerry Morris and friends found so many broom ?
Clement

Sam, Clement,

I think broom births have botanical grounds. Nuclear causes make general genetic destructions in seeds.

Well if Jerry had been living in Oregon, we could enjoy thousands of Sequoia, Thuja plicata, Tsuga mertensiana, Pinus monticola ... etc. brooms, which live there.

If Jerry had been lived in Canada, we could enjoy thousands of Picea glauca, Pinus banksiana etc.
And if he lived in New Caledonia or Indonesia, Borneo, we could enjoy thousands of his dazzling Podocarpus brooms...

But Jerry lives in Colorado, and he gave new discoveries of his mother land, which was till Jerrys activity a simply waste land in the category of "forget it". But he found the fruits of a semidesert land and the world is much better there then before. Hopely. If I see the reports of Nate from the Denver BG, I know that they are proud of their collection they have around.

In my last post I was going to make it clear, that broom hunting is a human activity and works with he has in his hands.

Zsolt