Apparently that’s the leading theory, but another is just that for reasons I am absolutely unqualified to explain, they sense light in specific ways that causes them to grow differently once they get close enough to another tree blocking some of the light there.
Comment on Atmospheric Slapping Tournament
ToffeeIsForClosers@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Exactly! I’ve said this for years, every time the meme comes up. I’m saying it right now to anyone nearby.
I mean, I have no real basis to know if canopy friction is the reason or not but I’m saving this post as support of my confirmation bias anyway.
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 1 day ago
ToffeeIsForClosers@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Like a houseplant angling toward the window light?
Slatlun@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
A little, the stretching house plant demonstrates how plants can sense the direction light is coming from. They can also sense qualities of light. They can tell if light is filtered through other leaves, for instance. I would speculate that refected light also has a unique color (wavelength) distribution that a plant could sense and respond to
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Terms like “sense” and “tell” are a bit misleading. It’s very much a chemical/mechanical interaction that’s automatic. Rather like soap bubbles “sensing” when they’ve reached the surface of the water.
Plants contain a protein called phototropin, which is activated by light. When it’s activated, it changes the shape and alignment of the “skeleton” of the cell, making it more cube-shaped as opposed to long and skinny.
That means the light side of a plant gets shorter, while the dark side remains long. The dark side also grows slightly faster, on a count of having more cells there (you can fit more skinny cells side-by-side than wide cells), and so the plant angles and grows toward the light.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The reflected light of other leaves wouldn’t cause photosynthesis since it only has wavelengths that the chloroplasts reflect. They wouldn’t have any light to absorb, or at least a lot less.
I imagine it’s like expecting regular soda and getting diet.
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 1 day ago
I would speculate that [reflected] light also has a unique color (wavelength) distribution that a plant could sense and respond to
It seems as far as we can tell, trees can detect “far red” spectrum light, suspected to be done via phytochromes, and that spectrum of light is in higher quantities when closer to other tree leaves because it gets reflected off.
They detect that, and don’t grow as much in that direction since it would cause diminishing returns.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s sort of how trees don’t have limbs lower than the height of a box truck along major roads.
OwOarchist@pawb.social 21 hours ago
Not really. Along most major roads, if trees are close enough to even potentially be a problem, they will be trimmed by road crews.
It’s not because they get hit by trucks, it’s because they’re deliberately trimmed back to keep the road clear.
SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
The result is the same and it’s not because the trees are shy.
QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
on the route of my bus route in HS you could see that the shape of the trees were exactly the shape of the busses, so either it was the busses trimming the trees or a very impressive lumberjack showing off for no benefit at all
Brickhead92@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Ah the age old question, which came first, the lumberjack or the buses?
Wilco@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
They dont get trimmed enough and usually get “trimmed” by passing tractor trailers.
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
So trees have evolved truck-sensing organs in the span of mere decades? Unbelievable!
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I know you’re joking but it’s really survival of the fittest.
Branches that are too low and get hit by trucks don’t grow very far into the road.