Artists of this remarkable practice shape living trees into intricate forms by grafting different parts of trees together. The subset of trees that self-graft — what botanists call inosculate trees — include fruit trees, sycamores, poplars and willows. They don’t need much human help to create dramatic loops, ladders, diamonds and knots.
You’ve observed inosculate species when you’ve seen a tree with two separate branches fused together. How does self-grafting work? When branches of a single tree or neighboring inosculate trees are placed together, their rubbing wears off the outer bark, which allows the inner layer of their trunks, called the cambium, to join. Over time, these tree’s vascular systems intermingle and get covered in new bark, thus creating a living connection.
The grand master of arborsculpture was Axel Erlandson. Born in 1884, he observed a natural graft between two sycamore trees in a city park, inspiring him to shape trees — first as a hobby, then as a passion and livelihood. He sculpted 70 trees in his own backyard in Santa Clara, California, which became knowns as The Tree Circus. It opened for paying visitors in 1947, intriguing guests for over 40 years. After his death, the trees were replanted into the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in central California, marketed as the place “Where Fun Grows on Trees.”
But anyone with time, patience and a few saplings of inosculate trees can create arborsculpture. A recently published how-to book, called “How to Grow a Chair,” teaches the fundamentals of this art form. It will take you a few years, but just imagine sitting on your arborsculpture chair on an afternoon, watching the clouds as your own living tree sculpture grows around you.
