Lions Tailing - What is it?

Lions Tailing - What is it?  The over-pruning of a tree by removing the majority of the interior branches leaving only the terminal leaves (like the tuff of the lion’s tail.)

Why is it wrong?

•  reduces the trees food supply by removing a large percentage of the leaves used for photosynthesis 
• the over pruning  causes a stress reaction called “epicormic sprouting” , “water sprouts” or “suckers”, causing a flush of branches along the trunk and limbs. This leads to weak branch unions and poor overall structure.
•  the long, leafless branches create a lever which when inflicted with wind, snow or ice are prone to breakage and splitting .

From Houston Tree Service Company-
While tree topping (at right) is not as prevalent as it once was in our community, another “epidemic” has begun to surface in the form of over thinning, over pruning, or “lion tailing.” This involves the excessive and needless cutting of living limbs and sprouts in the interior of a tree’s crown, leaving only tufts of foliage on the end of branches. Often as much as 50 to 75 percent of tree foliage is removed. This unfortunate practice is becoming as common place in our community as tree topping was 15 to 20 years ago. If it looks unnatural, or over-thinned it probably is. The result is unhealthy and structurally weakened trees. Too much sky not enough foliage! Trees need leaves to survive! Many times we see low dollar contractors “stripping out” or “lion tailing” trees, and this is a dangerous situation.  Lion tailing is a term used to describe when a tree service crew thins too much out of the canopy and leaves nothing but small tufts of foliage on the out branch limbs (much like a lion’s tail.)  This causes two problem: 1) The tree is now more susceptible to disease because you should never prune more than 20% of a tree’s tissue in one year. 2)  Over the course of several years, continued over-pruning will cause the tree to grow long and heavy which will in turn make the tree more likely to break in heavy winds.  Many times when the other guy is half the price of all of the legitimate contractors in the field, this is probably what you are going to end up with as a finished product.  Irreparable damage has been caused to the tree’s health and its long term safety.

This over-lifting or over-thinning is often referred to as lions-tailing. It leaves live branches only at the tips of the canopy. Tremendous numbers of sprouts often result from this type of tree mutilation.  - University Of Florida

ANSI A300 -
4.23 Lion’s tailing: The removal of an excess number of inner and lower lateral branches from parent branches. Lion’s tailing is not an acceptable pruning practice.

Heavy pruning just after the spring growth flush should be avoided. At that time, trees have just expended a great deal of energy to produce foliage and early shoot growth.