Is there a name for this type of formation of vegetation?

Don Rearic

Don Rearic

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
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I'm not kidding, there are all of these cool, old names for various things "country" and I'm wondering if there is a name for this formation of vegetation.

In a large field of sticker bushes and vines, there were large domes, about the size of a three or four man dome tent but that was the natural growth pattern of these stickers.

Some of them were hollow, just like a natural dome tent! And I used two of them as such for a few years in the neighborhood where I grew up.

Basically, you could cut yourself an entrance hole if one was not naturally formed and go in and do some housecleaning. Get some of the dead leaves and stuff out and it was an amazing natural shelter.
 
A briar bush? That's what we used to call if I'm thinking of the same thing.
 
Imagine a field that is a few acres of nothing but nastiness. But these things are not a bush, there is no roots in the center of most of them, they're hollow!

I was just wondering if someone had a name from them from days gone by, hell, might be called a Owl's Ass for all I know. :D
 
A Bigfoot Nest.

Not kidding :P
monsterquest-204.jpg
 
In all seriousness, I've encountered what you are talking about before. I'm not sure how they started but in all it just seems like some sort of micro climate kudzu or other vine competition.

kudzu-covered-house.jpg
 
a field across the street from my house was overrun with blackberries and would tunnel in with pruning shears and gloves.
was hollow in the center of some thickets. Made a great hangout and porn stash when I was 12 after getting whupped by a snoopy stepmom.
Ended up being a hangout for both of my younger brothers as well.
 
I would just call it a thicket. That's a good general term in my mind for a concealed clearing.
 
Joezilla said:
A Bigfoot Nest.

Not kidding :P
monsterquest-204.jpg
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Actually, if you make that a much darker brown, shrink it by 12-18 inches in height and about 3-4 in diameter, that would be VERY close to these things!

Of course, they greened up nice in the summer and instantly went to brown by Halloween.

I cannot begin to tell you how great they were. I had to cut a hole in the top of one to let smoke out of and I would use a hobo stove in there. Five gallon metal paint cans are great! :D

Bigfoot Nest, harrummph! That's pretty funny actually.
 
Don Rearic said:
Actually, if you make that a much darker brown, shrink it by 12-18 inches in height and about 3-4 in diameter, that would be VERY close to these things!

Of course, they greened up nice in the summer and instantly went to brown by Halloween.

I cannot begin to tell you how great they were. I had to cut a hole in the top of one to let smoke out of and I would use a hobo stove in there. Five gallon metal paint cans are great! :D

Bigfoot Nest, harrummph! That's pretty funny actually.
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I think it really may be a Bigfoot nest. I was talking to him in line at the supermarket the other day, and he said... no, wait, that was Elvis. My mistake.

Actually, I've never seen anything like you're talking about, Don. Are they waterproof in the rain?
 
I can tell you one thing.
If you take a tree, shaped like an orange tree, cleared from the bottom, and plant a chayote squash the thing will make a near waterproof umbrella.
I have a mango tree down by my river and it can be raining to beat hell and hardly any makes it through.It's a great place to hang a hammock............other than the fact it attracts eyelash vipers.:);)
The Loooziana boys call it a mirleton.
 
Never heard a name for it but it happens here a lot with Blackberry bushes and saw briars. They grow too tall to hold their own weight and fall over catching on each other creating domes when the growth underneath dies from lack of sun and are cleared out by small animals using it for a shelter. I used to hide in them as a kid.
 
dawsonbob said:
Actually, I've never seen anything like you're talking about, Don. Are they waterproof in the rain?
Click to expand...

One was relatively waterproof but I was not in that one during a downpour, just a good shower...the other one did not have as tight a weave to it.

The one that was fairly "waterproof" I was in during a little snowstorm and it was great!
 
mistwalker said:
Never heard a name for it but it happens here a lot with Blackberry bushes and saw briars. They grow too tall to hold their own weight and fall over catching on each other creating domes when the growth underneath dies from lack of sun and are cleared out by small animals using it for a shelter. I used to hide in them as a kid.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that. In a field about 500 yards away from this area, it was all blackberries but they were very close to the ground and never grew that high. It appeared to be just a field of low to the ground blackberries. In this field of "domes," there were no blackberries at all. Just the nastiest stickers you could imagine. You could walk these narrow little rabbit runs and later on, when the deer came back to the area, the runs got a bit better, etc.
 
Rubus Discolor, or Himalayan blackberry, has the larger, thicker shoots with big thorns, is more known species that provides ample understory room for quail, etc. and is considered a non-native invasive...

Many of the low growing species of blackberry are native... They are losing out to this vigorous grower in much of the U.S. including California....

It does hybridize with other Rubus species so there are all kinds of varieties popping up...

But they all taste good!:D


BTW Don Rearic, you say the domes go green. What is the leaf like? Any blooms?
 
paleojoe said:
BTW Don Rearic, you say the domes go green. What is the leaf like? Any blooms?
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I don't remember any flowers on them to speak of. I didn't go down in that field very much at all in the summer. The leaf sort of resembled an ivt type of leaf but not serrated like poison ivy.
 
thicket, bramble, briarpatch
are all names used in the midwest
and elsewhere im sure
in the pacific northwest
as someone mentioned
the non-native blackberry has become invasive and destroys native flora
almost impossible to stop
 
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