drooping branches, rainy weather/ sunny weather

[willie]

I remember reading somewhere a while back, of branches on trees that lift or droop with weather changes.
Certainly a good snow/water load makes them droop from gravity,  and I was initially wondering  about humidity reactions, but limbs that experience lots of gravity loading are of interest also.

we have folks here from all over, and your own local observations would be appreciated.

[gfugal]

Couldn't say, I haven't noticed. I live where it's very dry most of the time (Utah). On a side note, I also wonder something similar. My parents have some fruit trees (apple and peach) that get loaded down each year with fruit. And droop quite a bit. They have to thin out the fruit on the branches quite a bit to keep them from breaking. Last year they didn't thin one peach branch enough and it broke. I wasn't there to get it from them before they threw it away. I'm wondering if woods that bare loads like that would adapt and develop higher than average tension strengths and compression strengths, depending on the side of the branch. This may be completely unrelated to your question but it got me thinking. 

[PatM]

It's generally the Spruce type trees that have that load bearing capacity.. They definitely have compression wood on the underside to cope with that.

Fruit trees are too modified by man to draw a similar conclusion. Most of them are not even the same tree from root to branch.

[willie]

greg

it was a bit unrelated when I asked, but  you got me  to thinking, so I re-titled the thread, and .... it's now related.

very dry here also. I was hoping for some rainforest dwellers to respond, as  I believe I read about it from someone in the PNW.