They look separate in the top photo, as they would surely be. The Seattle arboretum has a similar intimacy being shown by a western red cedar and a western hemlock (if I remember the right species now) near the visitor center.

Neat! I recall a paper birch and a maple trunk to be so intimately entwined in the Maine woods that it was a odd sight to behold, even more so than these trees. Wish I had a camera with me then.

I'd never purposely plant two trees right on top of each other like that, but it's very cool when nature does it! I know of a location where there's a northern white cedar and an Eastern hemlock growing right tight together. They seem to tolerate each others company very well.

+oM

Usually one wins and one loses. Wouldn't a time lapse of their growth over their lives be interesting?

Interesting pics Sherry

Yes, it illustrates how closely together Mother Nature plants her trees - she sure doesn't plant them as far apart as the books recommend!
Sherry

Planting distance for isolated accent point specimens different than for groves and clumps. In the first instance a tree is the landscape feature, in the second the grove or clump.

They might could grow like that for a long time or one might over take the other. But many times trees like that once they reach a larger size they no longer have enough root support for their own weight at the weak point and one or both will break and fall in high winds such as in a hurricane.

One odd tree I've seen local is a Willow Oak growing around a power or telephone pole.

That's cool. Here's a pic of a merger in the making. Not quite there yet but some day it could be.... One side is a Live oak and the other side is a Sugarberry.

That's cool. Here's a pic of a merger in the making. Not quite there yet but some day it could be.... One side is a Live oak and the other side is a Sugarberry.
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We have a large Southern Red Oak in the front yard like that. Looks like they were 2 separate trees that merged. One is a lot larger than the other, but I don't think they will fall down any time soon?

Sherry: That photo is remarkable - it's very cool to see thatthose trees can share the same turf.

I think the Water Oak will end up winning the turf. The Cherry looks to be fairly mature, but the Water Oak will get plenty bigger.

I've seen some of these oddities myself: my parents have a young, rapidly growing pin oak that is beating out an old scrubby set of root sprouts from a hickory (I think that is what it is).

I've also see a few "mergers of giants" in the local woods - tulip trees and sycamores fused together. That's an odd one since both trees get HUGE in time.

When unrelated trees do that there is no chance of a biological "merger", or natural graft. But when they are both the same species, or closely related members of the same genus, a graft is possible in which fluids can be transferred from one to the other.

I didn't think Black Cherries got that large this far south. Most don't get bigger than a large crepe myrtle around here.

There is some here about twice as big as the one pictured. I see Black cherry trees about that size everywhere here.

And pinetree30 is right. Plants of the same botanical genus and species can naturally graft together even if they are a different variety. Plants with the same genus but of a different species can often graft together. But the result may be weak or short-lived, or they may not unite at all.

Plants of different genera have a less chance of grafting together, although there are some cases where this is possible.

Plants of different families cannot graft together successfully. Although it has been reported that relatively short-lived grafts of herbaceous plants of different families have been made before.

I made a picture of the circumference of the cherry, just didn't upload it - didn't know if anybody would be interested. I've got quite a few prunus serotinas this size. I had one considerably bigger, but it went down in the hurricane - it had a bad, strange-looking fork about ?3' up that undoubtedly weakened it. They come up all over the place, and I've been potting up the ones that come up in my garden or other unwanted places to plant in a favorable spot later on. They grow fast! I let one come up close to my front porch after the hurricane, and it's about 7' or 8' tall now.
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Sherry

Oh, I know that unrelated trees cannot graft to each other, but they can grow right next to each other and appear merged, at least for a while

I have Black Cherries everywhere here, but just when they start looking good, a storm will come along and break the top off.

Yeah I always knew black cherry sprouted easily down south, but they are prone to dieing early, much unlike the trees in Pennsylvania. I wonder why that is? Combo of cold and less humidity?

I measured a couple Black Cherries the other day here and one single trunk BC was 81 in around at 4.5 feet up, and the other multi trucked BC measured at the narrowest place at the base was 132 inches (11 feet) around.

That is multi trunk.^