"TREEEEE ?!?! I am no TREEE !! I am an.... oh, actually, I am a tree."
Like the Ents from JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings saga (only a bit slower), these trees actually move across the forest as the growth of new roots gradually relocates them, sometimes two or three centimetres per day. While some scientists debate whether these trees walk, Peter Vrsansky, a palaeobiologist from the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratisla, claims to have seen this phenomenon first hand.
“As the soil erodes, the tree grows new, long roots that find new and more solid ground, sometimes up to 20m,” said Vrsansky. “Then, slowly, as the roots settle in the new soil and the tree bends patiently toward the new roots, the old roots slowly lift into the air. The whole process for the tree to relocate to a new place with better sunlight and more solid ground can take a couple of years.”
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151207-ecuadors-mysterious-walking-trees
There are related trees in Costa Rica. There the researchers argue that the trees move to get more sunlight. Initially, the trees will start leaning toward small gaps in the canopy. Then, they will put down stilt roots in the direction the tree is leaning, while the stilt roots on the trailing edge of the tree slowly wither and dry up.
ReplyDeleteOne of the remarkable features about these is that in the adult tree, the trunk doesn't reach all the way to the ground. It rests on stilt roots some 10-20 cm above the ground.
Time-lapse or it didn't happen!
ReplyDelete:-)