Tonka bean trees survive lightning strikes — and use the powerful electric shocks to kill their competitors.
Scientists discover trees in the lowland rainforests of Panama that use lightning strikes to their advantage. Lightning is usually seen as a harbinger of destruction in forests, killing or damaging trees in their blasts. But in the lowland rainforests of Panama, one species of towering tropical tree may have evolved to use this force of nature to its advantage. The tonka bean tree (Dipteryx oleifera) may actually benefit from being struck by lightning, according to a new study. Scientists discovered that these trees not only survive these electrical encounters unscathed, but the lightning damages its competitors and the parasitic vines that cling to the tonka bean trees. The researchers published their findings March 26 in the journal New Phytologist . "We started doing this work 10 years ago, and it became really apparent that lightning kills a lot of trees, especially a lot of very big trees," study lead author Evan Gora , a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, told Live Science. "But Dipteryx oleifera consistently showed no damage," Gora said. In tropical forests, lightning is a major cause of tree mortality — especially among the largest, oldest trees that play key roles in storing carbon and supporting biodiversity. Understanding how lightning shapes forest structure and species composition could shed light on how resilient these ecosystems are in the face of climate change. But amid the destruction, the researchers noticed something surprising: one species seemed to be thriving. Using a custom-built system of electric field sensors and cameras to track strikes, researchers studied nearly 100 lightning events in Panama''s Barro Colorado Nature Monument. Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now…