Salt pruning in Encyclopedia

Salt pruning

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Salt pruning

A Torrey pine shaped by salt pruning.

Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds to alter the shape of trees or shrubs over considerable times throughout the growth cycle of the affected plant. The process of salt pruning selectively degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant facing the body of saline water. The resultant growth form is an asymmetrical plant form, swept back away from the ocean.

Examples

There are numerous examples worldwide of this phenomenon. In the eastern United States on Long Island occurrences of salt pruned Quercus stellata are observed in Flax Marsh.^[1] In San Diego County, California a colony of Pinus torreyana is found where salt spray driven mist from the Pacific Ocean has shaped many Torrey Pines via salt pruning.^[2]