A US man who covered himself in branches is arrested for obstructing traffic

A man in America has been arrested for obstructing traffic after crossing the road dressed as a tree.

Asher Woodworth, from the US state of Maine, covered himself in branches and walked really slowly across a street.

Police escorted him to the side of the road before taking him into custody.

Asher, who people are now calling "Tree Guy", has now been released by police. He told Newsbeat that he was trying to cross five roads, before officers arrived on his third crossing.

Watch the video on Twitter.

It turns out that he is a local performance artist in Portland, Maine.

He says: "I just had this very clear vision as I was meditating one day."

Ted Varipatis posted these photos of "Tree Guy".

He says he wanted to surprise people with his costume and "make them rethink their expectations".

The outfit was made from a mixture of trees, and took "a couple of hours" for Asher Woodworth and his friend to attach to himself.

The artist posted pictures similar to his outfit on his Tumblr page last month

Luckily for him, the foliage "smelled great".

But what on earth was he dressed as a tree for?

"I feel a close kinship with trees," the artist has told Newsbeat.

He was also inspired by a photographer called Charles Freger, who took the picture below.

Asher Woodworth also posted this picture on his Tumblr page

After he was arrested, Asher Woodworth says he spent about six hours in jail before being released on Monday night.

He called the experience "intense".

Watch journalist Kattey Ortiz's other video of the incident.

Obviously, once Twitter saw the story, users weren't going to pass up the opportunity for a bad pun.

Steven went with a cedar-related pun.

Hannah asked if they were waiting for "con-fir-mation" of his identity.

Matt noticed that even Asher's name was a tree pun.

Ramzi was "questioning" the police.

Ritesh managed to get a quartet of puns in one tweet.

And Kadisha wondered if there was something else the police should have been concentrating on.

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