Evolution happened in my front yard.

NOTE: This was originally posted in science in technology, and no one had an answer, I figured this was a better place to post it.

if this doesn't prove evolution, then what does?


--Orignal--
So here is the back story. Some 4-5 years ago, I started noticing something odd on one of my front yard trees. It began growing oddly. All the trees had taken 10 years to grow to their small size, but this one all of the sudden exploding into a tumor-like growth. Where as all of them had branches grown down going outward, this tumor growth was growing up and outward. At first it seemed another tree was growing much faster on this tree, upside down. As the months went on, it kept growing at a rapid rate. Then it grew seeds like these


which isn't normal. These trees were mule trees. Selectively bred to grow small, and to be sterile, but this tumor was growing seeds, so it was kind of strange. Then my family decided to cut it off, however, some survived, and regrew. I have a few theories about this tumor:
1.) the poising in the air mutated it's genes and made it grow oddly.
(good old New York City area air with NJ toxins)
2.) It somehow crossbred with the larger tree in back of it (picture bellow)
3.) Aliens genetically altered it's DNA to take over the world in 20 years (Highly unlikely)

Well, here's my lil'mutant




The other normal dwarf trees with the mutant tumor thingy


And the tree that it COULD have trans-form-igafied with or something



As you can see, the tumor thing shares characteristics of the big tree behind it, but shares the color of the dwarf tree, hence the confusing part because how could the trees have mated if one is sterile and the other a different species??

Well, what do you think. How could this be, and what exactly happened here??

--old update--


Ok, I took some more pictures of where the mutant and normal tree meet. I never really looked at it before, and I noticed that the mutant isn't growing out of the normal tree, it's growing right out the main trunk and has formed as the tree's top. Here is an illistration and the pictures. If I could get the camera flash working, it might be a bit better detailed:























What I've found to be cool is not the tree itelf, but its rapid growth rate. This is why I call it a cancer or mutant tumor thing, because the trees took over 10 years to get this tall, but now this mutant has grown to consume the top of the tree to it's current condition in a few months. It's really cool.

--end of old update--


--End of Original--

UPDATE:

So I planted some seeds this "mule" tree wasn't supose to make and they have begun growing. Pictures to come when the 1st leaves form.


Once again -> NOT GRAFTED

[edit on 16-8-2007 by Gorman91]

I find this interesting,but unfortunatly have no answer.i have been looking online about trees "cross-breeding" but all i get is sites about genetic modification.maybe thats whats happening,nature is doing it herself.who knows! will keep looking.

The reason for what happened is probably given away early in your post when you say that the trees were "mules", selectively bred to be small and infertile.

The problem is that what you have are some hybrid trees which are anything but normal in their own right even if they do fit in your garden rather better that way. These specially bred specimens can be quite unstable and revert back to their natural state to some limited extent, such as a new branch, and as this will be its natural state it will probably be more vigorous and can eventually dominate the rest of the tree.

More obvious examples of this can very often be seen on trees or plants with variegated leaves, (that is, with leaves of more than one colour, normally green and white). These variegated species are specially bred for their leaves and can be very attractive but, like your tree, one side effect is that they do not generally grow as vigorously as a plant in its natural state. These trees or plants will regularly shoot reverted branches of normal green leaves and as these grow faster the whole tree can gradually be taken over by the reverted growth.

If this is what has happened to your tree than you are not seeing evolution as such, quite the reverse in fact.