helendale-u-s-a-may-28-2011-california-the-bottle-tree-ranch-on-route-66
Folklore

The bottle tree

Posted by

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

She knew that there could be a spell put in trees, and she was familiar from the time she was born with the way bottle trees kept evil spirits from coming into the house — by luring them inside the colored bottles, where they cannot get out again.
—Livvie, by Eudora Welty

Are your premises safe against haints, furies and other such ornery spirits? Have you painted your front door blue? Has the neighborhood seen a sudden upsurge of bottles dangling upside down in the trees?

Glass ‘bottle trees’ originated in ninth century Kongo during a period when superstitious Central African people believed that a genii or imp could be captured in a bottle. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside, but near, the home could capture roving (usually evil) spirits at night, and the spirit would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine. One could then cork the bottles and throw them into the river to wash away the evil spirits.

Furthermore, the Kongo tree altar is a tradition of honoring deceased relatives with graveside memorials. The family will surround the grave with plates attached to sticks or trees:

Kongo Altar Tree, by Dr. K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau of Zaire and Boston.

The Kongo custom of showing affection for the dead by surrounding the grave with plates attached to sticks prefigures one kind of North American bottle tree. The plates’ resemblance to mushrooms evokes a Kongo pun: matondo/tonda, mushroom/to love. 

“In Africa,” says Dr. K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau in African Arts magazine, “before any dedication event such as the dedication of this ‘mushroom tree,’ one would always say, Mfuma na mfuma, nganga na nganga. This motto states, ‘Politicians deal with politicians; doctors with doctors.’

“When a powerful individual—a leader, a chief, a twin-mother, a hero, a community healer, or the community historian—dies, one says N’ti ubundubidi, “The tree has fallen.” This fallen tree in the upper world joins the ancestors in the lower world, and to offer thanks, jars, pots, knives, plates, bottles, and bracelets are laid on the ancestral tombs.”

And so, trees and bottles eventually came together.

This practice was taken to Europe and North America by African slaves. Thomas Atwood, in History of the Island of Domi (1791), made particular note of the bottle tree as a protection of the home through an invocation of the dead. Atwood writes of the confidence of the blacks “in the power of the dead, of the sun and the moon—nay, even of sticks, stones and earth from graves hung in bottles in their gardens.”

While Europeans adapted the bottle tree idea into hollow glass spheres known as “witch balls,” the practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread in the plantation regions of Southern states and from there migrated north and inland into Appalachia.

Traditionally the bottles are placed on the branches of a crepe myrtle tree. The image of the myrtle tree recurs in the Old Testament, aligned with the Hebrews’ escape from slavery, their diaspora and the promise of the redemption of their homeland.

Bottle tree sculpture, b&w, undated

Bottle tree colors can range from blue, to clear, to brown, but cobalt blue are always preferred: in the Hoodoo folk-magic tradition, the elemental blues of water and sky place the bottle tree at a crossroads between heaven and earth, and therefore between the living and the dead. The bottle tree interacts with the unknown powers of both creative and destructive spirits.

The bottles are placed upside down with the neck facing the trunk. Trees need not be thickly populated with bottles. Malevolent spirits, on the prowl during the night, enter the bottles where they become trapped by an ‘encircling charm.’ It is said that when the wind blows past the tree, you can hear the moans of the ensnared spirits whistling on the breeze. Come morning they are burnt up by the rising sun.

Today, the bottle tree has entered the realm of folk art. Companies now market bottle tree armatures meant to serve, once clothed with milk, wine, or milk of magnesia bottles, as colorful garden ornaments. The poor man’s stained glass window, you might say.

Sources: Tradition and Innovation in African-American Yards, by Grey Gundaker, African Arts, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 58-96
Alabama, One Big Front Porch, by Kathryn Tucker Windham, NewSouth Books, 2007
www.lovelycitizen.com/story/1257420.html
http://www.cullmantimes.com/community/build-your-own-blue-bottle-tree/article_b76dd0a7-ba20-586d-aac0-a6c0a3fd26e8.html

“Face of the Gods – The artists and their altars,” by Robert Farris Thompson, African Arts, Vol. 28, No. 1, winter 1995

More articles that connect Appalachia to African traditions:

Making Music: The Banjo, Baltimore, and Beyond(Opens in a new browser tab)

The memory jug(Opens in a new browser tab)

Appalachian clog dancing(Opens in a new browser tab)

24 comments

  1. I stumbled upon your site and wanted to compliment you on some really great material.

    I have seen bottle trees several times in my life but this is the first time that I’ve read an explanation of them 🙂

  4. sorry, but glass bottles for repelling spirits were not first used by 9th century africans, they were widely used by mediterreanean (north africa) and arabic cultures for over 3000 years – remember aladdin and the genii in the lamp? predates Congo by a couple of millenia… pliease stop pushing this fanciful “slave/voodoo” myth about ancient bottle trees…

  5. I don’t think anyone is trying to “push” voodoo or slaves ritual myths , just to shed a little light on how the bottle tree arrived into the US. As humans we are fascinated by our connections to the past and because there isn’t much written material about bottle trees here in the states, only verbal memories and theories, it’s safe to say it’s a form of folk art and folklore. But in the US itself her history is deeply rooted in the south and amongst African Americans in particular. I don’t think you could argue that it was in fact African people who exercised the artistic creation of these sculptures and proudly displayed them around the perimeter of their home. Maybe some did engage in voodoo, just like there are some people who exercise witchcraft today but overall I think it was just a way to decorate with what you had available and also a distant connection that certain people had to their ancestors. Kinda like the feeling that a Christmas tree gives us. Makes us feel sentimental, makes us smile with all of the color and details but not many people can tell you how the Christmas tree came about. All we know is that we just plain like it.

    6. i dont think slaves or arabs started the bottle tree; why is it people try to inject these groups into everything? Peleg started it after the land was divided.
      Look that up.

  7. I actually make bottle trees for sale at my local craft market and have always loved the story behind them. I linked your story on my site since I believe it is such a good and well written narrative on their history. Hope you don’t mind! Anyone interested can reach me at ironwoodcrafts.com

  8. Have been lookin for this for so long. Something told me too do this at my home. Feelings of unrest and sleepless nights. Missing the love of Mother and Fear of MY Child.My Mother God Rest her soul has been gone for a year I know she is in Heaven still thinking she wants me too protect my family from from harm. Inside and out. thank you. Please send more information on my families history.

  9. I was interested in what the bottles in trees were suppose to mean/represent now I have an explanation. I just think they are cool regardless of their origin. My wife an I are going to start one in our outdoor area here in Missouri, I’m sure it will fit right in here.

  11. As an Anthropologist I concur with Felder’s information. One thousand and One nights,,,, it had North African as well as Ottoman roots.

  12. It’s too bad that feller wasn’t as polite on this site as he is on his own.

  13. So sad that some readers hate that a lot of traditions started with black people all over the world….Black people were the first on this planet….Real History hurts the unholy

  15. Thank you for posting an excellent article. I became curious about the meaning of the bottle tree when I discovered an entire yard filled with them while driving Uber in Asheville, NC. There is a lot of eclectic art in Asheville, but I assumed there had to be more to it than just artistic expression. Anyway, thanks again.

  16. Enjoyed your story. Very interesting. Was not aware of the history. Was looking for bottle trees and came across your article. Thank you

  17. Well written and informative article. Mr. Tabler ,you are a talented writer.

  18. Despite what some say I myself like to believe what was written in this article. One day I will research it further, maybe, but what I have here makes me content. I love my tree and get a lot of compliments on it.

  19. Thanks for shedding some light on this subject it was very informative and I really enjoyed reading a great piece of history no matter if it was black 🖤 people or whatever don’t really matter it’s history and I praise you for sharing your thoughts and teachings with me I think it’s just cool that you took the time to pass on knowledge no one else seemed to want to offer and with that being said the ones who are trying to correct and belittle what this is passing on to others instead of getting on here and saying hateful things how about you applaud them for telling there thoughts on it and if u don’t agree write your own thoughts down on your own page and let folks read what you believe to be true thanks again for the history lesson GOD bless

  20. I saw my first bottle tree years ago while on a summer visit to central Wisconsin. I was told at the time it was an Indian tradition to honor their dead after their loss of land and so many of original traditions. I bought my bottle tree about 5 years ago at a countywide garden expo in northwest Indiana and have it in my dunes garden displayed with the beautiful blue bottles from a Riesling wine I especially especially like!
    Joan Meister

  21. Pingback: Bottle Trees: A Beautiful Tradition With a Spiritual Past – History | HowStuffWorks – Spiritality, Metaphysics & Religion
  22. Pingback: Bottle Trees: A Beautiful Tradition With a Spiritual Past - History | HowStuffWorks - RichMutants

  23. Thank you for the information. I was reading a novel (House of Cotton) set in Appalachia and it mentioned an African-American woman hanging bottles in trees to catch the evil spirits around her house. I wondered if that was something the author had made up, but now that I know the history, this story has so much more meaning.

  24. Pingback: La tradición sureña que tiene su origen en la espiritualidad africana - HISTORIA

Leave a Reply