A random thought popped into my head today. That happens to me a lot. I always find out interesting new things that way. I’m as curious about the world as a 6 year old. That can’t be a bad thing. I think I might post these questions whenever I get an answer because maybe someone else was wondering the same thing. Today I started to wonder if plants can get cancer. The answer is, yes, they can, but it usually won’t kill a plant. Popular Science explains why:
In animals, a tumor develops when a cell (or group of cells) loses the built-in controls that regulate its growth, often as a result of mutations. Plants can experience the same phenomenon, along with cancerous masses, but it tends to be brought on via infection. Fungi, bacteria, viruses, and insect infestation have all been tied to plant cancers. Oak trees, for example, often grow tumors that double as homes for larvae.
The good news for plants is that even though they’re susceptible to cancer, they’re less vulnerable to its effects. For one thing, a vegetable tumor won’t metastasize. That’s because plant cells are typically locked in place by a matrix of rigid cell walls, so they can’t migrate. Even when a plant cell begins dividing uncontrollably, the tumor it creates remains stuck in one place usually with minor effects on the plant’s health—like a burl in a redwood tree.
Plants also have the benefit of lacking any vital organs. “It’s bad to get a brain tumor if you’re a human,” says Elliot Meyerowitz, a plant geneticist at the California Institute of Technology. “But there’s nothing that you can name that’s bad to get a tumor in if you’re a plant. Because whatever it is, you can make another.”
Meyerowitz points to another difference between plant and animal oncology with regard to those redwood burls: “Instead of treating plant tumors by surgery and chemotherapy, we make them into cheesy coffee tables.”
$3,200 for tree cancer on legs.
This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Popular Science.
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/ask-anything-do-plants-get-cancer
Lucky Otters Haven 
That is commonly referred to as a ‘burl’ and in woodworking, it is considered to be highly prized to have a burl (aka a log cabin that has burls as part of the support logs).
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I know they are very expensive! Some high end cars have wood-burl dashboards too.
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Wow turning sonething sad into art 🙂
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sort of, although it apparently doesn’t hurt the plants that much or kill them. I guess when the trees fnally die of old age or some other disease (which they could be more susceptible too) the burls are cut out and made into furniture and art. They are pretty, for something that’s really an abnormality.
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Yeah. I did wonder of it did any good for the plants to remove the abnormality. Otherwise just hurting them for designs would be cruel
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I agree! I hope they were already dead.
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🙂
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Oh man, the cheesy coffee table is great. And so interesting that you even thought about that.
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When I read that part about tree tumors being made into cheesy coffee tables, I just had to find a picture of one! Ha!
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