10 bizarre ways trees can surprise you

Triffids and Ents didn’t make this list, but other notable trees did. From a eucalyptus grove where trees have golden leaves (yes, real gold) to a city that provided trees with their own email addresses, here are ten mysteries, facts and specimens that will raise your eyebrows.

Related: 10 man-made places decorated by nature

10 The strange scientific status of trees

In the scientific world, animal and plant species fall under different families and orders. It’s what gives them their hard-to-pronounce Latin names. But trees don’t follow the rules. They are not a family, order or species. Of course, different tree species exist, such as oak, maple and cherry trees. But as a whole group? No.

This begs the question, “Do trees exist, scientifically speaking?” According to forest scientist Tom Kimmerer, these wood wonders do exist in a scientific sense, but they are also a bit on the strange side. According to him, trees are just a ‘habit’ or tall form that plants develop to outcompete other plants for light. That’s why they’re all over the evolutionary map.

While that confuses the mind a bit, it doesn’t change the fact that trees are living things in their own right.^[1]

9 The last tallest tree

A special tree was named ‘Menara’ after scientists found it in Malaysian Borneo. In Malay, this word means ‘tower’, and the name is apt. Menara is a monster. The yellow meranti tree, believed to be the tallest flowering plant and the tallest tropical tree in the world, isShorea faguetiana) is wider than a football field. From top to bottom it measures 330 feet (100.8 m), roughly the equivalent of five bowling alleys.

The tree was discovered in 2018. A year later, a man climbed Menara to the top, with a measuring tape in hand, and confirmed that it was indeed the largest tropical tree. It is also heavy: it weighs a whopping 81,500 kg.

Although nature is full of surprises, experts believe it is unlikely that another tree will break Menara’s record. The taller trees get, the more challenges they face, such as drawing water and nutrients up to the highest branches. Menara seems to be the limit of what tropical trees can achieve, give or take a few meters.^[2]

8 Dormant silver birches

Do trees sleep? To answer this question, scientists studied two silver birch trees (Betula pendula). One tree was in Australia and the other in Finland. The research focused on looking for physical changes after the sun went down that could indicate slumber.

To ensure conditions were right, the researchers chose a time in September close to the solar equinox, when night and day hours were approximately the same. Dry and windless weather was also forecast, which was perfect. While nature played along, the two trees were measured with lasers over several days.

The measurements showed that the trees relaxed their branches and leaves at night. A few hours before sunrise they dropped to their lowest point, and just before sunrise some branches returned to their day position. This strongly suggested that the silver birches were experiencing some form of sleep.^[3]

7 Deserts are surprisingly green

In West Africa, the Sahel and Sahara deserts are not known for their abundant rainforests. Instead, when people think of these sandy landscapes, they think of endless dunes – and maybe a camel or two. But a few scientists had the feeling that these deserts were hiding more trees than meets the eye, and they were spectacularly right.

The researchers used about 11,000 satellite images to count trees in an area of ​​1.3 million square kilometers. They quickly realized that manual searching would take too long, so they turned to artificial intelligence to do the work. But before that could happen, the deep learning program needed to be trained, and one brave scientist accomplished that by spending a year counting 90,000 trees on his own to show the AI ​​what to do. Things moved quickly after that and the results were shocking, even for the researchers involved.

The program revealed the presence of approximately 1.8 billion trees, and that was just in the area covered by the photos.^[4]

6 The trees of Angkor are ironic

In the 15th century, the temples of Angkor were abandoned. The dense Cambodian jungle has reclaimed the complex, and today massive tree roots and trunks fold over buildings in a crushing hold. Conservationists feared the trees were destroying the iconic structures, and they were wrong. The heavy vegetation had done its fair share of damage.

The solution, of course, was to remove the trees clinging to the buildings. To determine whether this would have any impact on the complex, a 2014 study compared two different sites in Angkor, called Ta Keo and Beng Mealea. Both were carved from the same sandstone, but while Beng Mealea remained in the grip of the jungle, photographs showed that someone had cleared all of Ta Keo’s vegetation as early as 1920.

A digital analysis showed that 79% of the original carvings at Beng Mealea were still in good condition, while more than 90% of the carvings at Ta Keo had been lost. Without the forest to protect it, Ta Keo’s stone surfaces were severely damaged by centuries of monsoon rains and tropical heat. It seems that the trees of Angkor both protect and destroy the area.^[5]

5 These trees have email

Melbourne, Australia, has approximately 70,000 city-owned trees. Officials wanted to keep the trees healthy and safe, especially from dangers like drought and general decline. But keeping an eye on 70,000 trees was an impossible task.

Then someone came up with a brilliant idea. Why not ask the good citizens of Melbourne for help? The idea was to assign ID numbers and email addresses to trees so that people could report any signs of damage or disease they saw, allowing for a quick response to trees needing treatment. It didn’t quite work out that way.

When the program rolled out, residents used the email addresses but did not send damage reports to the city. Instead, they wrote love letters to the trees, complimenting their appearance or even thanking the trees for times when they kept people safe during undesirable weather.

While the flood of fan mail was never the city’s intention, Melbourne officials clearly took the whole thing in good humor, with some trees writing back to their admirers.^[6]

4 Fake spy trees from World War I

World War I forced the Allies to get creative, especially when it came to gathering intelligence on the front lines. But spying on the enemy in the worst combat zones was not easy. In 1915, the French had a brilliant idea. Why don’t we plant fake trees on the front lines? A soldier could hide in the hollow trunk and survey the land through peepholes and periscopes.

The sheer effort that went into creating these trees is mind-boggling. The first step was finding a real tree. Under the cover of night, engineers photographed and sketched the tree and also took measurements. This information was passed on to artists who created a life-size replica of the tree in great detail, using wood and ‘bark’ made from metal and broken shells.

On the inside, the fake tree was armored and a rope ladder led to a high wooden seat. When the botanical bunker was completed, the engineers waited for a dark night and carried it to the site of the real tree, which was removed so that the spy post could be planted in its place. By morning the enemy did not know that the tree was now fake and was hiding a soldier.^[7]

3 Trees with golden leaves

In Western Australia, a few kilometers north of the town of Kalgoorlie, there is a eucalyptus grove. At first glance they look like ordinary trees, but in 2013 scientists discovered that their leaves contain gold particles.

This was no accidental discovery. In Australia, thick layers of sediment and rock can sometimes hide precious minerals too well. Looking for a better way to find gold, the researchers recalled that mining engineers had heard that eucalyptus roots often ended up deep in gold mines. With this in mind and knowing that plants can extract minerals from the soil and transport them to their leaves, the team decided to test eucalyptus leaves for gold particles that could indicate the presence of underground gold deposits.

The eucalyptus grove stands on a dusty piece of land that shows no sign of hidden treasures. However, the gold specks in their leaves led to the discovery of deposits at a depth of 30.5 meters, confirming an effective, if not bizarre, way to search for gold.^[8]

2 The Floating Tribe Mystery

Oregon’s Crater Lake is special for many reasons. It is the deepest lake in the United States and the water is incredibly blue. There is also a 120-year-old mystery, which may last a few years, that began in 1896 when Joseph Diller discovered a tree trunk floating in the water.

The 30-foot tree stump was behaving strangely. It floated upright, not horizontally as trees normally do. It was also incredibly buoyant; When a forest ranger stood on the tree in 1930, it was able to support its entire weight without sinking.

The “Old Man of the Lake,” as some call it, still puzzles scientists. Logically, the tree stump should move with the wind, but it is not unheard of for the Old Man to cross the lake going against the wind. But the strangest thing is that it keeps turning back to the upright floating position. With its length and diameter, it must be placed horizontally in the water. By claiming otherwise, the tree defies physics, and no one can explain how or why.^[9]

1 Trees eat meat

Although a pine will never jump anyone, trees are not entirely vegetarian. This may come as a surprise to some, as on the surface they only seem to need sunlight, water and soil. But beneath the surface it’s a stranger story.

Trees can make their own simple sugars, but they can’t make minerals like sodium, calcium and potassium – all essential things they need to survive. Fungi in the soil produce these minerals when they break down proteins and fats from animal remains. Fungi, in turn, cannot make their own simple sugars. So trees and fungi made a deal.

The fungi attach themselves to the roots of a tree, making mutual trade possible. The tree feeds the fungi with sugars. And since the fungi supply animal minerals, you can say that trees indirectly snack on animal carcasses.^[10]