In Defense of Plants by Matt Candeias

Author:Matt Candeias
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2020-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Ivy-leaved toadflax is most at home growing out of cracks in cliffs and rock walls.

Now, before we end this chapter, there is one species I would be remiss not to mention. The plant I have in mind lives in the rainforests of Central and South America and goes by the common name of walking palm (Socratea exorrhiza). If there was ever a plant that could be said to “walk” around the landscape, this would surely be it. Before I get ahead of myself here, I think it is worth dispelling any image of an actual walking tree. These palms are by no means Ents. However, their biology does provide them with more freedom than their more firmly rooted cousins and I feel that they deserve honorable mention.

One does not soon forget their first encounter with this odd palm. For me, it took place on a backpacking trip through Central America. On a hike through a chunk of rainforest in southern Costa Rica, we came to a hillside with surprisingly little vegetation, which gave us an uninterrupted view of the trees. Growing on that hill were two of the strangest palms I had ever laid eyes on. Instead of a single stout trunk, these palms were balanced on what looked like a dozen or so spikey tentacles. Our friend and guide for the week, plant guru Dave Janas, told us that we were looking at a pair of walking palms and those “tentacles” were their roots. Whereas most palms invest in heavy trunks, the walking palm sends out a lanky set of stilt-roots upon which the palm grows like some otherworldly arborescent squid.

Decomposition is as common as it is rapid in tropical forests. Due to all the heat and humidity, the omnipresent threat of rot means there is a constant rain of limbs and snags from the canopy above. Trees regularly topple as well. For most plants, getting flattened by such debris is usually fatal. However, for the walking palm, getting toppled by a fallen limb isn’t necessarily bad. It has been observed that walking palms flattened by fallen debris can actually “walk” themselves out from underneath. The key to this lies in those stilted roots. Most of the trunk of a walking palm can produce stilt-roots and when one gets knocked over, the trunk can swing into gear, sending out new roots into the soil. If this happens quick enough, the walking palm can find itself rooted into a new spot free of the weight of the branch that squashed it. From there, the walking palm can continue its journey into the canopy, leaving the remains of its flattened trunk behind.

Getting squashed isn’t the only danger walking palms face in a dense rainforest. Light is at a premium in the deep shade of a rainforest understory. Plants grow so quickly in the tropics that a hole in the canopy that provided ample light one week may quickly close in the next. If a plant were able to “move around” it could potentially relocate to a sunnier spot.

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