⚡🌲⚡ The Tree That Thrives on Thunderbolts ⚡ 🌲 ⚡

This is an interesting new study I came across a few days ago showcasing yet another amazing adaptation mother nature has come up with.

So, there's this tropical tree in the forests of Panama called tonka bean tree. Also known as eboe, choibá, or almendro and scientifically described as Dipteryx oleifera it has evolved in such a way to literally harness lightning strikes for its benefit!

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Yes lighting strikes! The same lightning strikes that kill or greatly damage other trees are actually beneficial for this one.

After a five year long study that involved the use of electric field sensors, cameras, antenna array and other equipment the researchers gathered enough data to prove something they had hypothesized before the study.

These trees not only show minimal damage after being hit by a lighting but they also benefit from them in two ways. First, the lighting kills a good chunk of the parasitic vines that grow on them. But they also kill a fair amount of the neighboring vegetation and hence reducing the competition.

The researchers calculated that living near an almendro increases a given tree’s likelihood of dying during a strike by 48%—so lightning may help eliminate trees that might grow tall enough to compete for an almendro’s sunlight,

And due to being taller and having a bigger canopy then other trees in the area, they tend to attract more lighting strikes then the norm!

the researchers concluded that the average almendro on Barro Colorado Island is many meters taller than other nearby trees and has a broader crown, raising its odds of a lightning strike by 68%.

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Really interesting stuff imo, showimg how mother nature is far more resourceful and interconnected than we will know!

Here's a link if you fancy reading more on the study!

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Since this is a nature post, here's a new little friend I made today in the forest. I gave him some tomato from my sandwich, which he enjoyed it after I gave him some distance:

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