Just what is it that brambles do to plants they grow up?
I've observed it before, but rarely so obviously. There's a
magnolia in the garden which blooms each year. And since the brambles
got in from next door, they come up in the spring each year and grow
into it.
On Monday it had about five blooms. Since I was in the garden cutting
brambles elsewhere, and already had the chainsaw and garden bin with
me, I thought I'd take out this lot of brambles too. I cut the rest of
what was easily accessible on Tuesday. And on Wednesday:
But just what is the mechanism by which a bramble impairs a plant
that it's growing up? It's not shading the leaves to any significant
extent, it's not piercing the skin. Can it really just be that it's
taking nutrients from the ground more effectively than the host? I've
looked around and everyone agrees that brambles will "strangle" or
"choke" other plants, but by what means?
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