Those are 2 separate stems which have been growing side by side for years. They may never been joined, or if they were joined, they have now pushed themselves apart.

Eventually, one or both will fall down. If anything is in the way -- tree; child; play equipment; etc. -- it will be affected.

Time to remove and replace.

I seriously doubt any removal is necessary - to either the branch or the tree itself!

Just to clarify ID, is this red bark maple a Japanese maple like Sango Kaku, aka coral bark maple? (from the small twigs I see, it looks like it). If so, occluded branches or stems are very common with this species and usually of no concern. They may separate over time with weight but will generally callous over the exposed wood. Just keep an eye on it and make sure that the exposed portion doesn't get spongy or soft. If that happens you may need to take some further action.

IME, when this sort of thing happens with JM's, nothing falls down :-)

One or both will fall down if it gets some ice or wet snow.

Where do you live, Mary?

Do you really think so, Mike? I guess that could be a possibility but I just don't see snow loads being heavy enough on this type of tree structure/form to do any significant damage. Now if that area is already starting to rot, all bets are off. But I have never seen snow do any big damage to JM's (occluded bark/tight joint angles or not) other than the weeping forms with that netted, horizontal branch structure.

I just don't see it as a major concern.

I live in Olympia Wa. I noticed this since the last snow fall. My guess is it's a result of the weight of the wet, wet snow a few weeks back. I had a similar thing happen to a shrub. In the past I have actually glued a tree back together. Would that help a JM and would it hold. Could I wrap it? You are correct garden gal, it's a Sango Kaku. I love this tree. I don't want to remove it and plant a new one. I collect JM's, and love this one. :-(

I had a lot of Japanese maples split from that snow also. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures. It snowed on and off all day today and I was doing firewood.

Narrow forks are susceptible to splitting, most with bad looking results but, as you say Pam, most will callous over and continue on. In this case I think the trunk on the right has the best chance of going completely over. The one on the left has the best chance of surviving. I don't know of anything you can do now, Mary, to fix it. Maybe Gardengal has a fix. She knows this stuff as well as any.

Gosh, it's hard to imagine I even in live in same general vicinity as you guys...........snow has been virtually nonexistent in my area this season!! One little 3-4 incher a few weeks ago - that's it.

There are some concerns here because the split occurs so low on the trunk and the weight of either branch will continue to want to pull the split wider. However, removal of either branch is going to result in a lopsided 'half' tree! What is the actual wound like? Is it soft and mushy inside or is it still solid wood? If still firm and solid, I'd consider bolting through the trunk split.

If the tree was valuable to me (as all my JM's are and I'm sure you feel the same), I'd get a certified arborist out to give me some options, including the viability of bolting the trunks together.

The wood is still very solid. I'm pretty certain this just happened. I will call an arborist. Thanks to you both. I'll be sure to post what we do.

I had an arborist stop by today to look at the tree. He gave us two options that sounded amazingly familiar:

1. Bolt the tree
2. Remove the right side of the split

Can't decide. If I removed the right side I could prune it to look like a bonsai. But it seems like the trunk will look odd. A bolt would look weird too. Thoughts?

Personally, if it was my tree I would either bolt it or leave it alone and let fate decide if a storm damages a branch. I wouldn't cut off a branch and disfigure a mature Japanese Maple.

I think I've decided to bolt the tree. I think it would look odd if I took off half of the tree. It's located at the end of our driveway at the entry to our house. I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks! The arborist tied it so it won't split or fall.