“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” – Max Planck
There are different mysterious places in this world. Science has not been able to solve all of these mysteries. These places have always been a source of great attraction to us. Crooked forest Or the Krzywy Las in western Poland is one of them.
Have you ever seen a J-shaped tree in your life? If you have, what do you think is the reason for this curvature?
Whatever your answer may be, let’s find out about this Polish crooked forest together. The crooked forest is exactly what the name implies. This forest, located in a small corner of western Poland near the town of Gryfino, has mystified nature with around 400 weirdly crooked pine trees. These trees were planted in the 1930s. Even though they grew up like normal pine trees, the mind-blowing fact that was discovered later is that these 400 pine trees took an unexplainable bend in their base after 7-10 years which was almost 90 degrees shaping them like the letter J.
But the most mesmerizing thing is the massive forest, surrounding this little crooked forest, with all straight trees. There are many places in this world with strangely bent trees such as the subarctic Taiga’s Dancing Trees, Siberia’s Drunken Forest, Romania’s Hoia Baciu forest, etc.
But, the Crooked forest of Poland is something else. It distinguishes itself with its organized massive number of trees surrounded by totally different straight trees standing like shields.
Are you thinking about how this curvature occurred? Is there a definite answer to it?
The answer will be negative. It is one of those mysteries which people haven’t been able to solve yet.
According to the estimates, these 400 crooked trees were around 7 to 10 years old when they suddenly faced this bent in their base. This abnormal occurrence was tried to be explained with many hypotheses, but most of them were baseless. Let’s see what these assumptions were:
The Gryfino Town Farmers:
The most credible explanation claims that these trees were manipulated by those farmers who had planted them in between 1925 to 1928. Their most probable intention was to prepare naturally bent timber for making furniture and that’s why they may have created this curvature in those 7-10 years old fine pine trees. They didn’t let the trees grow upward and hindered their normal growth immensely. In 1939, during World War II, these farmers gave up their endeavors leaving a mysterious crooked forest behind them.
Genetic Mutation
There is also another hypothesis that suggests the unique genetic mutation of these trees.
According to William Remphrey, a retired plant scientist at the University of Manitoba, this crooked forest can’t be explained that easily. He also didn’t justify this genetic mutation process strongly.
Remphrey admitted about his discovery of a group of aspen trees in Canada to bend and droop consistently with the passing time due to genetic mutation. But, this case had left even him thinking. According to him, if the reason was genetic mutation then the curvature should have spread beyond their bases which made him believe the real reason to be some environmental effects.
Gravitational Pull
Another bizarre theory is that the trees might have bent northwards due to some kind of unique gravitational pull in this particular area which holds no proper evidence or support.
Enemy Tanks
People believed another weird explanation was that during an enemy attack in World War II, enemy tanks flattened the young trees rolling on the land so impactfully that the trees grew back crooked.
But another question arises then which is why only those 400 trees? And how come those enemy tanks attacked the trees creating such an organized crooked forest? How was it even possible for those young trees to bear those heavy tanks and still survive resulting in weird yet uniform curvature?
Heavy Snowfall
It was also suggested that a heavy snowfall and then a long spring melt may have caused the trees to face a sudden curvature in their bases. But the same question arises here again: why only those 400 trees?
Another assumption I would like to present also indicates some human influence. Pine trees need proper sunlight to grow well. The farmers may have covered the trees in such a way that they needed to bend towards the sunlight which eventually caused the curvature.
Whatever might be the reason for the formation of such a crooked forest in Poland, its weird appearance and mysterious existence have been attracting tourists for a long time. It is indeed a worth visiting place, especially to those mystery hunter minds.
So, let’s just skip the wait. Get ready for an adventurous trip!!! How about the mystery getting solved on the way???
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Writer,
Nowrose Sharmin Mou
Associate Head, Content Writing Department
YSSE