Tree hollow
a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree
A tree hollow or tree hole is a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree. They are found mainly in old trees, whether living or not. Hollows form in many species of trees. They are a prominent feature of natural forests and woodlands, and act as a resource or habitat for fungi and a number of vertebrate and invertebrate animals.
Hollows may form as the result of physiological stress from natural forces causing the excavating and exposure of the heartwood. Forces may include wind, fire, heat, lightning, rain, attack from insects (such as ants or beetles), bacteria, or fungi. Also, trees may self-prune, dropping lower branches as they reach maturity, exposing the area where the branch was attached. Many animals further develop the hollows using instruments such as their beak, teeth or claws.
The size of hollows may depend on the age of the tree. For example, eucalypts develop hollows at all ages, but only from when the trees are 120 years old do they form hollows suitable for vertebrates, and it may take 220 years for hollows suitable for larger species to form.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tree hollow” as a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2392414. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tree hollow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.