Ice pruning is the natural process of selective vegetative
pruningPruning is the process of removing certain above-ground elements from a plant; in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. In nature, certain meteorological conditions such as wind, snow or seawater mist can conduct...
on the windward side of a plant, executed by the impact of ice and snow particles driven by wind. The process is sometimes termed
snow pruning. The time scale required for this phenomenon is typically over a multi-year growth period; moreover, a requirement to achieve the characteristic asymmetry is that prevailing winds during snow season has a decided bias in the
wind roseA wind rose is a graphic tool used by meteorologists to give a succinct view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location. Historically, wind roses were predecessors of the compass rose on maps, as there was no differentiation between a cardinal direction and...
.
Ice pruning is often seen in far northern latitudes, such as locations above 50 degrees northern latitude.
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Ice pruning is the natural process of selective vegetative
pruningPruning is the process of removing certain above-ground elements from a plant; in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. In nature, certain meteorological conditions such as wind, snow or seawater mist can conduct...
on the windward side of a plant, executed by the impact of ice and snow particles driven by wind. The process is sometimes termed
snow pruning. The time scale required for this phenomenon is typically over a multi-year growth period; moreover, a requirement to achieve the characteristic asymmetry is that prevailing winds during snow season has a decided bias in the
wind roseA wind rose is a graphic tool used by meteorologists to give a succinct view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location. Historically, wind roses were predecessors of the compass rose on maps, as there was no differentiation between a cardinal direction and...
.
Examples
Ice pruning is often seen in far northern latitudes, such as locations above 50 degrees northern latitude. In parts of northern Canada,
Black SprucePicea mariana is a species of spruce native to northern North America, from Newfoundland west to Alaska, and south to northern New York, Minnesota and central British Columbia...
dominant forests demonstrate some individual trees that are distinctively ice pruned.