What is s Burl? A burl is the round knotting growth on a tree. It’s often used for handcrafted objects, due to its attractive figure when polished.
The World’s Largest Burls are all located on Vancouver Island in Port McNeill.
… and they do not come from a tree that you would expect…
The largest one, discovered in 2005 is approx 6 meters tall, 6 meters in diameter and weighs an estimated 30 tons! The 2nd largest, discovered in 1976, was from a 351 year old Sitka Spruce tree and weighs approx 22 tons!
The interesting fact about the two largest burls is that they don’t come from the most common type of tree (Redwood) that you would expect. These 2 odd balls are actually from Sitka Spruce trees.
Without realizing it, I had driven by it a couple times due to it’s not so blatant location. It’s located almost dead centre in the town, but protected by trees, bushes and a structure. If you go looking for it, you’ll see its location is not so obvious to the eye at first.
What also makes this a rare moment for my photos… I had to stand beside it just to give you a size comparison of just how big it really is.