The stories we tell ourselves about the natural world can sometimes be far from the truth.
For years, visitors to the rainforests of Central and South America have been told stories of trees slowly roaming on high roots.
The so-called walking palm legend (Socratea exorrhiza) has been going on since at least 1980 by anthropologists John H. Bodley and Foley C. Benson. be familiar with The incredible behavior of plants has been published in a scientific paper.
Bodley and Benson say that when some palms in eastern Peru are knocked down by a fallen tree or branch, they can “right themselves up and ‘walk’ out from under the obstacle” away from their sprouting point.
It is said that palm trees follow sunlight through the forest using more than a dozen roots that grow from their tall trunks.
These roots are sometimes several meters above the ground, and as Bodley explained decades ago, when a root breaks off or rots, new legs can explore patches of soil some distance away.
To this day, the Latin American Rainforest Guide is I often tell tourists A walking palm tree can change its position by as much as 20 meters a year.
However, a small number of individual scientists I think there may be a grain of truth in this storythe tiptoeing nature of this tree is probably a myth.
When you look at the evidence, it really doesn’t hold up.
In 2005, Gerardo Avalos, a tropical ecologist and palm expert, study it was found S. exorrhiza It practically does not wander from the germination site.
In their paper, Avalos and his colleagues agree that when walking palms fall down, they can rapidly grow new roots to cope with the loss of stability, but they actually move very little. Masu.
in interview Along with Italian illustrator and author Elisa Paganelli, Avalos explains that walking palms are fixed in their germination sites, but like other rainforest plants, they can stretch out somewhat in search of light. are doing.
scientist admit He said it was “incredibly moving and amazing” that walking palms could actually walk, but “that’s just a legend.”
“For one thing” Avalos pointing out In a 2009 correspondence with Benjamin Radford of the Sketical Inquirer, he wrote, “The large cone-shaped roots of the Japanese staghorn tree take a long time to develop.Changes in canopy light conditions are more dynamic; , the hole in the canopy opens at the same time as the other holes, so it’s closed.”
Avalos argues that the idea that walking palms could move fast enough to search for these gaps in light is unrealistic.
In 2007, another study We came to the same conclusion about this curious species as Avalos and his colleagues.
But the real mystery that remains is why walking palms have so long legs when they don’t.
In the 1960s, scientists thought these extreme roots evolved to cope with flooding, but there isn’t much convincing evidence to support that idea either.
More recently, researchers have claimed In dense rainforests, thanks to the stilted roots of walking palms, this species more easily increases its height and stability, taking advantage of the light gaps in the overhead canopy without expending energy on thick trunks. It means that you can.
Although many people will no doubt continue to talk about this tree, current evidence suggests that this species does not actually walk.
That’s outrageous.