Pine and oak tree trunks can’t graft together

Q: I made a pretty cool discovery in my yard in Tattnall County. A few weeks ago I was cutting down some pine trees. As I was cleaning up some of the debris, I noticed an oak tree and a pine that had naturally grafted themselves together!

A: Thanks for these great pictures! I don’t think the oak and pine have physically grafted together. I think it is more likely that the two grew closely side-by-side and the pine’s swaying back-and-forth knocked off a couple of side limbs from the oak. As the trees got larger, the oak limb stubs pressed so tightly onto the pine bark that it looks like the oak grafted to the pine.

Botanically speaking, oak and pine can’t graft together because their cells are so different from each other.