4 ms·
> I don't know enough to know whether cutting all your trees down and not being able to grow them back counts as an ecological collapse, or whether that was the
by pvaldes 2y ago
> I don't know enough to know whether cutting all your trees down and not being able to grow them back counts as an ecological collapse, or whether that was the only way they could sustain even three thousand people.
Knowing the genus of those palms is essential to answer this question
- onlypassingthru 2y agoIt wasn't palms, it was toromiro. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophora_toromiro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophora_toromiro
- zarathustreal 2y agoBut.. that guy said “genus”!
- pvaldes 2y agoNope, not the legume. Sophora are the "new order" that toke the scorched place. The survivors that nobody wanted because they are legumes. The real deal were in the Paschalococos palms. As I suspected those were included in the tribu Cocoseae so they were the most important plant in the island for humans. When the palms went extinct in 1650 the society entered in a whirlwind extinction situation. Rapa nui inhabitants commit ecological suicide to themselves and the rats and foreigners carrying diseases give them the final blow. If you replace Paschalococos with Sophora there is a hidden big collateral effect. Even if the island is still covered in luscious green is not the same family of green.