Dictionary

wolf tree en · NOUN

Etymology

Perhaps because the trees were once lone wolves.

Meanings

1. A large forest tree whose size and spreading branches suggest that the environment around it was formerly a clearing without other trees.
   • WOLF TREE A "wolf" tree is a tree within a woods, its size and form, large trunk and horizontal branches, anomalous to the environs of slim-trunked trees with upright branches. It is a clue to the open field in which it once grew alone. — Anne Whiston Spirn, The Language of Landscape / The wolf tree's arms reach out […] 2007, Alison Calder, Wolf Tree, Coteau Books, →ISBN, page 34:
   • Watch for a huge white oak, a "wolf tree," standing massive among younger trees. […] "wolf trees." These trees, obviously much larger than trees of the surrounding forest, were once "lone wolves"; for example, a white oak that once shaded a home, or a tree in a grazing pasture. 2020 October 1, Johnny Molloy, Best Hikes Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill: The Greatest Views, Wildlife, and Forest Trails, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 46:
   • That wolf tree looks much older than the trees around it. I'd bet this was an empty field when it was young.

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