A forest of petrified trees on the coast of Ceredigion County, Wales, has been exposed by a storm this week. The forest, which comprises the stumps of hundreds of Pine, Pinus, Alder, Alnus, Oak, Quercus, and Birch, Betula, stumps stretches from Ynyslas to Borth, and is thought to be between 4500 and 6000 years old. While the forest is usually covered by sediment, it is periodically exposed following storms, having last been seen in 2014, and is even found in local folklore, as Cantre'r Gwaelod, a mythical kingdom on the west coast of Wales that sunk into the sea, sometimes known as the 'Welsh Atlantis'.
Exposed tree stumps on the Ceredigion Coast in May 2019. Matthew Horwood/Getty Images.
Most of the trees show a distinctive growth pattern of growth, with most of the roots spreading along the surface, with only a few roots extending downwards as anchors. The exception to this rule is the Alder stumps, which have consistently deeper root systems. This style of growth is typical of trees growing in wetland environments with a high water table, where most trees struggle to get oxygen to deep roots submerged in water, something which Alder trees are adapted for such environments. Alder trees typically lower the water table where they live, and often form the first stage of the colonisation of wetland environments by terrestrial woodlands, but in this case the reverse seems to have happened, with the waters rising and eventually drowning the trees.
Exposed tree stumps on the Ceredigion Coast in May 2019. Matthew Horwood/Getty Images.
A study of the Ceredigion Submerged Forest published in the journal New Phytologist in 1938 by Harry Godwin and Lily Newton, based largely on pollen and Foraminifera extracted from boreholes by Florence Campbell James, suggested that an ancient Reed-bed trapped a raised bogland behind it, which was then colonised by first the peat-forming Moss Sphagnum sp., then an Alder woodland, which was in turn overwhelmed by marine waters.
The Ceredigion Submerged Forest exposed in May 1923. Challinor in Godwin & Newton (1938).
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