Bizarre Tree That Evolved to Use Lightning for Survival

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a very strange tree in South America and its unusual survival strategy
Links:
#tree #lightning #biology

0:00 Bizarre tree from South America
0:35 Lightning strikes in natural locations
1:40 New study on tropical forests and lightning strikes
3:05 Unexpected discovery of a tree that never dies
3:55 Tonka bean tree
5:30 Lightning strikes on this tree and its evolutionary adaptation
8:10 Additional questions and conclusions

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[oakstrong]

We had an old apple tree growing next to a large, tall boulder, which got hit by lightning. The strikning split the tree all the way to the ground slowly killing the smaller section, about a third - the bigger portion was bent down, growing more or less horizontally. My parents contemplated cutting the tree down the following winter - it was hardly bearing any fruit anyway. But in the autumn the tree was so full of apples that had the tree been standing upright the weight of the apples could have broken the branches. So my parents didn't cut it after all. For the next ten years that tree was the most prolific one of the ten apple trees in our garden, thanks to the lightning that half-killed it, until one spring it only produced a few leaves, and by autumn it was dead.

[davids]

This tree sounds like an ancestor of a science fiction tree described in the story, "Midworld, " by Alan Dean Foster. His 'stormtreader' tree stored static charges from lightning strikes and discharged the electricity as a means of defense.

[sokar_rostau]

Sydney's Blue Mountains were named for the blueish haze that covers the area in summer from all of the volatile chemicals released by the eucalypts. Lightning strikes and the whole place goes up in smoke while the pyro-propagators thrive. It's not quite the same thing but it's still a tree using lightning to clear out pest flora/fauna and create the conditions for seeds to grow.

[KarstenJohansson]

When I was a kid, the tree we built a tree fort in got hit by lightning. I lived across the road, so needless to say, it was *loud*. 20 some odd years later, I revisited the area, and parts of the fort are still in the tree! That surprised me. But the damage was as wild as I remembered. But it was heavily coated in lichen, which made it look ancient. My dad has since told me (I don't live anywhere near the town, two hours outside of Toronto anymore) that they have since removed the remains of our fort, but it took like 35 years for them to do it, haha.

[shaneh]

This is unusually cool. I've seen lots of trees after being struck by lightning, and most of them do ultimately survive, but rarely without severe damage, and never with any advantage to the tree, regardless of whether surrounding flora is killed off or not.

[nickfosterxx]

Thanks for the link to the paper. Who'd have thought? The design of this tree increases the likelihood of strike by roughly 50-70% and yet given the avg of five strikes in a lifetime that enhances fecundity by 14x given the reduced competition from surrounding trees and lianas.
The trees around them were about 50% more likely to die.
Strong hints in the text that other species have a similar trick.

[maxheadman]

I love how you not just cover astronomy and physics, but have covered many other topics as well! This is why I've followed you for so long and you're my go to for learning things about space and science :). It amazes me how many channels can pop up and explain the big bang exactly the same way but you report on a huge breadth of discoveries, observations and theories that would otherwise be obscure to the broader general audience. You don't have nearly enough subscribers as you deserve, thank you Anton for always being informative, clear and excellent!

[nicholasconder]

Boreal forests in North America consist of a large number of trees and shrubs that actually promote fire. The tree's structure is such that fires started on the ground will climb into the crown and create massive wildfires. Some of these pines have serotinous cones, which require fire to open and spread their seeds.

Boreal forests in Eurasia, on the other hand, have a different crown structure (the trees tend to self-prune lower branches), and tend to have ground fires only.

[triplebog]

What's interesting to me about this. Other than it being like Hyperion, is that this could only really happen with trees because most places on earth don't get enough lightning strikes in an area for animals to make use of it. But on the timespan if trees, there are probably a lot more situations where there would be enough lighting strikes in a population over time to drive evolution

[tinkerstrade]

I could see such a tree evolving to control it's environment by offering protection to plants if they formed some type of symbiotic relationship.
And it could be stretched into a nice sciz-fi horror short story.😊
Thanks, Wonderful Person!

[witwisniewski]

High conductivity may be a big part of the adaptation. Changing current in a conductor induces a magnetic field around it that pushes the current toward the surface. It is called skin effect. As conductance increases, the skin depth decreases. Fast, strong pulses in a very conductive "wire" can cause the current to leave the conductor entirely forcing it into an external plasma channel, a huge spark, bypassing the original conductor. That in turn moves the resistive heating to the surrounding air, protecting the conductor. This is why lightning rod grounding wires are not placed inside or even on the exterior walls of the buildings, but are spaced away from surfaces.

[lindsayheyes]

One candidate for investigation would be Crack Willow, which is common on river banks in Britain:
Deep cracks in its bark collect water during storms. These cracks, and other properties of the bark which seem to exploit surface tension, channel the water to run underneath the branches to the trunk rather than drip off them. In heavier rain, this channelling is overwhelmed and the water flows off the undersides of the branch in a sort of curtain, which I've not observed under any other species.

The tree thus retains a sort of jacket of water around it, and I have long wondered as to what advantage that might bring to the tree. It obviously concentrates rainfall close to the trunk, but these trees inhabit places where water is constantly available anyway, so drought resistance is unlikely. I suspect that concentrating water near the trunk encourage rot, so branches fall and take root, thus propagating the tree.

However, if this 'jacket' of water acts like a sort of Faraday Cage, it may protect the tree from lightning.

Any botanists out there?

[jennytaylor]

I used to have a Tonka Truck when I was little... never knew they made trees as well

[montylc]

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
And they're quite convinced they're right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light

But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream "Oppression"
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
"The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light"
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw
Rush..."The Trees".

[TyrianHaze]

I remember talking to an oceanography professor a few years back, and I was like "it's amazing how nature can come up with anything we can come up with" when discussing animals far up north being able to see in the ultraviolet spectrum. This one takes the cake though.

[Devo]

Thank you, Anton! The variety in your posts keeps me coming back.

[Oldman]

The saying "lightning never strikes the same place twice" is a myth. Lightning can, and often does, strike the same place repeatedly, especially if it's a tall, isolated object like a tree. I have seen many trees in the woods near my house with nearly straight line damage down the trunk. Usually pulling off the bark in about a four inch wide gash.

[avereth]

Turning a lightning strike from a likely tree death scenario into an excuse to blast strangling vines off the entire trunk and push away competing neighbor trees is nuts.

[carried]

This is pretty cool!

Back in the day, if you had a wall phone and were on it during a bad storm with a lot of lightning, chances are you'd get a mid to severe shock. I know 4 people who didn't believe that and got shocked doing it. Old-school fafo lol.

My old neighbor and 2 of his 3 adult sons got hit by the same lighning strike. They were golfing and took cover under a large outbuilding when a storm hit. The building was open on 3 sides; was basically a large lean-to for shelter during temporary inclement weather. It was located such that parties on 3 holes could quickly access it pretty quickly. Anyway, the golfers all took shelter there during this particular severe storm. Lightning hit a tree close by, bounced to and through 2 of his sons, and ended the strike in the dad. No lie, no exaggeration. I saw the damage on each and it caused a stroke in the dad. He survived but sadly had poor health the rest of his life after that; he'd been quite healthy and fit before the strike.

Learning more about lightning and the sun helped me understand plasma better. It amazes me that our planet has such weather and nature recovers. It amazes me that such severe processes happen in the sun constantly and our planet shares a small bit in conditions like that- though on a miniscule scale in comparison.

[gaufrid]

This reminds me a bit of how many native trees and shrubs in Australia will only disperse seeds after a bushfire. The trees and shrubs recover usually, partly due to an increase in nutrients in the soil after fires, and the seeds disperse into nutrient rich soil, producing seedlings in areas bare of competition. Nature always finds a way.