A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
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.
It’s sort of how trees don’t have limbs lower than the height of a box truck along major roads.
So trees have evolved truck-sensing organs in the span of mere decades? Unbelievable!
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.
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.
The result is the same and it's not because the trees are shy.
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
Ah the age old question, which came first, the lumberjack or the buses?
They dont get trimmed enough and usually get "trimmed" by passing tractor trailers.
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.
Like a houseplant angling toward the window light?
So is there some research showing it's caused by damage? That should be easy to confirm, right?
apparently not, as it remains uncertain. there are hypotheses though, one of which is referred to in this meme: winds cause collisions which cause abrasions and damage, which result in crown shyness.
Good band name
Just let the tips touch
Has no one ever been in a forest before? Trees 100% grow all up into each other all the time. They compete for sunlight and try to choke each other out by design. These pictures honestly don't look real
We are a product of the forces that shape us.