[Horseapple Man]

Preparing this osage orange log for storage, I cut off all the knots with the table saw & chiseled off any dead rotted stuff.

I noticed in several places that there is decomposing bark deep inside the log, surrounded by green wood.

All I can come up with is that the limb died & came back from the dead at some point.

Any other theories on how this happened?

Keep in mind, this is a limb off an original FDR dust bowl windbreak tree, not the trunk.

 

[SomeDudeOnline]

I can't say for sure but I would guess that it's a sign of significant damage like fire or severe drought to an otherwise very healthy or extremely resilient tree. I see it all the time in Manzanita and I think with the Manzanita I see, it's drought that causes part of the bush/tree to die but it must shift its focus to other areas until it gets water again. At that point, the surrounding sapwood isn't totally dead so it probably just grows around itself like anything else in the way.

 

[Horseapple Man]

I can't say for sure but I would guess that it's a sign of significant damage like fire or severe drought to an otherwise very healthy or extremely resilient tree. I see it all the time in Manzanita and I think with the Manzanita I see, it's drought that causes part of the bush/tree to die but it must shift its focus to other areas until it gets water again. At that point, the surrounding sapwood isn't totally dead so it probably just grows around itself like anything else in the way.

I included a picture of the end grain. That's the fatter end. It looks mostly normal.

I wonder if that limb got struck by lightning at some point.