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Getting hit by lightning is good for some tropical trees
- snapcaster 2y agoReally cool, feels like the v1 of the lightning trees from Hyperion. Was hoping there was a breakdown of how the trees accomplish this. Will be interested to see follow up
- freetonik 2y agoClicked on comments to write something about Hyperion, found your comment instead :) Cannot recommend that series enough to anyone who loves science fiction.
- dachris 2y agoYes, highly recommended - beware, it's 4 long books (which is a good thing), with 1+2 and 3+4 belonging together. And the trees are called Tesla trees ;-)
- NikolaNovak 2y agoThe Tesla Trees was indeed immediately where my mind went, just give it a few million evolution iterations! And the article not only backs up what the headline indicates - it reads almost as a malevolent adaptation, attracting lightning to eliminate parasites and competition.
- ceejayoz 2y agoI have a grow tent in the basement with tropical shrubs - hibiscus, plumeria, jasmine. Maybe it's time to make a Tesla coil...
- cratermoon 2y agoSimilarly, trees like Longleaf pine, Giant sequoia, and Coast redwood have adapted to not only tolerate but thrive through fire. Some even require fire to reproduce.
- cjs_ac 2y agoAustralian eucalyptus trees also require fire to reproduce. The oil in the leaves is there to intensify the fire, destroying competing species.
- contingencies 2y agoNot true. There are many eucalypts. Some benefit from fire. Others benefit from cold. Most require neither and some probably require different seed release or germination stimuli. A primary evolutionary purpose of the oils seems to be as a pathogen resistance measure, being antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoAlso Xanthorrhoea which is adapted to fire but doesn't require it.
- jfarlow 2y agoSerotiny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotiny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotiny
- contingencies 2y agoCard carrying member of the Australian Plant Society here! Prior to flowering plants (Angiospermae; 140MYA) we had ferns (Polypodiopsida; 360MYA) and Fungi (>1000MYA). I suspect a large number of Australian fern species, especially those with elevated situations (epiphytes) such as Asplenium (colloquially "Birds Nest Ferns") and Platycerium ("Staghorns" and "Elkhorns") as well as those with substantial frond sizes Todea barbara ("King Fern") or Pteridium esculentum ("Bracken Fern") or tree-like stature Cyathea/Dicksonia ("Tree Ferns") may have evolved partly to benefit from fire for spore release and long distance transmission due to fire-related updrafts. This could make sense because they may usually otherwise be 'trapped' in high moisture locations without due to an absence of strong updrafts facilitating ascending to higher altitudes yielding potential for longer distance transmission. Just as ferns are often the first greenery to emerge from winter landscapes in the northern hemisphere, ferns are often the first visible greenery to return to burned bushland... after moisture. Based on their age I suspect a large number of fungi probably respond to fire, especially subterranean species that are likely subject to only partial thermal trauma. Stepping back from fire to lightning, I similarly suspect "getting hit by lightning" and/or consequent canopy opening elicits a fungal response which also benefits trees that are victim to lightning strike.
- westurner 2y agoAlso re: lightning and living things, from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43044159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43044159 : > "Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms" (2024) > "Gamma rays convert CH4 to complex organic molecules [like glycine,], may explain origin of life" (2024)
- gigatree 2y ago“If you explained trees to someone who’d never heard of them—towers that drink through their feet, turn light into food, and whisper through fungal cables—they’d think it’s the craziest tech ever invented.” Add this to the list
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoI was surprised to learn that two randomly selected trees are not likely to be more closely related than any two other randomly selected plants. They're not a family but rather a strategy that evolution has rediscovered several times separately. If there is light-powered life on other planets, it has probably figured out how to tree also.
- xandrius 2y agoDo you mean 2 randomly selected trees for the same specie? Otherwise that statement is not surprising at all.
- shwaj 2y agoIt’s somewhat surprising to me. If you take any two furry animals, they are more closely related to each other than to a lizard.
- i_cannot_hack 2y agoNot really true. Kiwi birds are very furry (unless you define furry as having mammalian hair, which sort of defeats the point) and are more related to lizards than to mammals.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoRight, that was my thinking. Though frequently incorrect, it is intuitive that similar things are more closely related than dissimilar thing.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
- damnitbuilds 2y agoUnfortunately each tree will only be hit once. Wut?
- SteveNuts 2y agoI think it's a joke playing off of "lightning never strikes the same place twice".
- Night_Thastus 2y agoGiven that there was enough time to make the trees lightning-resistant, I'm surprised there isn't a lightning-resistant parasitic vine as well! Fascinating stuff. :)
- yummypaint 2y agoGiven that these trees may be intentionally attracting lightning to kill their neighbors, I wonder what the nature of their day-to-day interactions are like under the soil. Have other species evolved to attack these trees? Do they even know?
- lukan 2y agoThey (likely) don't know. They know that if they act as lightning rods, their chances of survival are inreased by burning parasitic vines. And they know that, because it worked.
- matthest 2y agoEarth has figured out the optimal way to operate over millions and millions of years of trial and error. Our job is to get out of the way.
- ceejayoz 2y agoEarth has figured out a bunch of good enough ways to operate. They are by no means always optimal, especially as situations change. We have knee problems because we evolved fairly recently from creatures that didn't walk upright on asphalt all the time.
- tim333 2y agoWe are part of Earth too. One of many species to rise and maybe fall.
- ratmice 2y agoFairly surprised there was no mention of nitrogen fixation in the article.
- raffael_de 2y agoI think the title is misleading. The lightning strike isn't itself good for those trees. It just eliminates competition for resources by killing less resilient surrounding plants and trees.
- rocqua 2y agoIt actually helps the tree by killing parasitic vines. Based on just the parasites, it could be beneficial to the tree to get hit directly compared to only nearby trees dying.
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- ceejayoz 2y agoSo... it winds up being good for the trees?
- crazygringo 2y agoNo. Lightning striking the tree is bad. It damages it, full stop. Lightning striking the trees surrounding it is good, because it kills them, and it gets more resources and grows more. But the two events tend to happen together, because lightning hits several trees at once. So the title is, indeed, incorrect. It's confused about which trees are being hit, and which trees are benefiting. Obviously the best-case scenario for the tree is to have lightning strike next door, killing neighboring trees with no damage whatsoever to yourself.
- ceejayoz 2y agoWorking out damages muscles, but it's still good for you, the organism as a whole, as the end result of that process is positive. In this case, it really is good for the trees, to the point where they may have evolved to encourage the strikes: > The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods. > But in 2015, while working in Panama, Gora and his colleagues came across a Dipteryx oleifera tree that had survived a strike with little damage — even though the jolt had been strong enough to blast a parasitic vine out of its crown and kill more than a dozen neighboring trees. > “Seeing that there are trees that get struck by lightning and they’re fine was just mind blowing,” Gora recalled. Over time, the team encountered other D. oleifera trees thriving after getting hit, so they decided to take a closer look. > “These data provide the first evidence that some trees benefit from being struck by lightning,” the authors write. Or, as Gora puts it, “It's better off for a Dipteryx oleifera tree to be struck than not.”
- momojo 2y agoReminds me of how (small and regular) forest fires are actually healthy for giant sequoias. > Giant sequoia cones are serotinous, which means that fire on the forest floor causes them to dry out, open and release their seeds. This adaptation ensures that the tree times the release of most of its seeds to coincide with fire, which creates ideal conditions for regeneration success. Fire burns off woody debris and exposes the soil, it creates an ash layer that returns nutrients to the soil and increases sunlight by killing some of the competing pines and firs. https://www.savetheredwoods.org/interactive/giant-sequoia-and-fire/ https://www.savetheredwoods.org/interactive/giant-sequoia-an...
- nomel 2y agoThese types of plants are pyrophytes [1]. The Eucalyptus is one that encouraging fires with its oily leafs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophyte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophyte
- rocqua 2y agoAnyone know what makes these trees better able to take the hit? Do they insulate their trunks and hope to channel the strike through parasitic vines and competing trees? Or do they grow some kind of highly conductive guide to easily channel the strike to ground? Neither seems plausible to me. The first perhaps is a bit less unlikely... I presume there is a third option that I missed.
- stainablesteel 2y agooutstanding, a lightning trap for nearby plants, and maybe nearby animals i wonder