Photo from open sources
These unusual and beautiful trees were once exported from New Caledonia (archipelago in the southwestern Pacific) and due to its decorativeness spread throughout the world. how it turned out they have one very strange property, on which before people did not pay attention.
Today, the Cook pines, named after them discoverer, grow on five continents. However wherever there was this tree, it invariably grows under some slope. Least of all is this slope in the pines that grow in their homeland – in New Caledonia. He is really so small that no one noticed him until Cook’s pines have spread throughout our planet.
Strange Cook Pines Discovered by Matt Ritter
The first to notice this striking feature was the American nerd Matt Ritter (California State Technical University university). It happened so. Ritter called his to an Australian colleague to share a curious observation: all Cook pines sloping apexes to the south. How surprised he was when in the answer heard that in Australia these trees are always curved to to the north! ..
A photo from open sources
Intrigued scientists join forces to explore this Mysterious property of Cook pines. They traveled across five continents, visited all climatic zones on them. More seen scientists, the more they were amazed. It turned out that the slope of the trees depends not only on the hemisphere in which the pines grew, but also on climatic zone.
In the Southern Hemisphere they leaned north, in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the equatorial zone they grew almost directly. What makes trees grow at an angle? 256 Cook pines that were suitable for the purity of the experiment, namely, there were no extraneous factors, capable of affecting the growth of trees, for example, damage to either tightness.
A photo from open sources
It turned out that the angle of inclination directly depends on how much pine trees are removed from the equator. On average, it is 8 ° 55 ‘. Researchers have put forward several versions that can explain this phenomenon.
Cook pines feel the earth’s geomagnetic field?
According to the first theory, the unnatural slope of a tree is the result of mutations in the mechanism of trunk development. However this the hypothesis does not explain why the slope depends on the hemisphere, and also climate zone.
The second version. Some plants are known to be able to turn to the sun, for example, a sunflower, or to be constantly facing south to get more amount of light. An example is the short-leaved yucca. It is possible that the pine Does Cook have a similar mechanism? But then what is the goal of tilting her trunk?
A photo from open sources
And the last hypothesis that Cook pines feel geomagnetic lines of the planet and their intensity. It is from these factors determine the direction and strength of the inclination of the trunks, taking into account gravity vector. This theory seems to be the most probable and at the same time the most difficult to prove. As known, similar mechanisms sensitive to geomagnetic lines, found only in migratory birds, as well as some species of fish and mammals. The presence of this mechanism in plants would allow radically change the idea of hypersensitivity of living organisms.
But even if we accept this theory, the question remains: why trees reach for the equator? Really in this way they strive for their “historical homeland”? Is this possible, and if so, how Cook pine can realize their “secret desires”? ..
There are many questions, there are no answers yet …
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