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> Then there are mangroves whose trunk flattens out at the base; these trees stem from a branch at a low elevation — and they walk!...Is this tree really walkin
by antcas 5y ago
> Then there are mangroves whose trunk flattens out at the base; these trees stem from a branch at a low elevation — and they walk!...Is this tree really walking? When we walk, our physical mass moves as a whole. But no displacement of matter occurs with mangroves; the way they grow just makes it look that way. The “movement” is the growing process, four to five meters a year. The branch experiences necrosis and vanishes at one end, while it keeps developing on the other.
- ncmncm 5y agoThis turns out to have been wholly fabricated by tour guides. Appealing story, though. BTW, if you like that sort of thing, https://cantrip.org/slow.pdf https://cantrip.org/slow.pdf
- teruakohatu 5y ago> BTW, if you like that sort of thing Thank you for sharing that. It was a fun read.
- mmtauqir 5y agoWell it does say "poetic" in the name of the book, which I own, and I would say "the way they grow just makes it look that way" would definitely poetically count as walking.
- Cerium 5y agoI suppose the mangroves walk as much as a glider in Conway's game of life glides.
- djmips 5y agoBut not even that much I don't think. But perhaps you are thinking along the lines of a whole forest moving. Trees dying on one side, born on the other. Over a long timescale the forest 'walks'.
- Cerium 5y agoHow is that different than a horizontal tree growing on one end and rotting on the other?
- glenstein 5y agoI was having brain freeze trying to understand what exactly was meant, but this is a brilliant way of putting it.