Crotch (Crotch Figure)

Crotch figure is the dramatic, often flame- or feather-shaped grain pattern found in the wood right where a tree's trunk forks into two major branches -- the compression and redirected grain flow at that junction produces some of the wildest, most unpredictable figure a tree can yield, prized for veneer and small decorative panels precisely because it can't be reliably reproduced anywhere else in the same tree.

Like burl, crotch-figured wood has grain running in multiple directions at once rather than one consistent line, which makes it visually striking but structurally weaker and more prone to checking than straight-grained lumber from the same log.