PECULIAR PLANTS

Leaning pines, a shroom-sprouting frog and an ecosexual tree-hugger

ON THE TRAIL OF THE LEAN-SOME PINE Cook’s pine (Araucaria columnaris) is a conifer native to New Caledonia in the Pacific islands but has been planted across the world as an ornamental species. Wherever it is found, though, it never seems to grow vertically. Matt Ritter, director at Cal Poly Plant Conservatory in California says, “When grown outside of its native range, this species has a pronounced lean so ubiquitous that it is often used as the identifying characteristic for the species.” Researching the pines, Ritter found that all the specimens he was studying seemed to lean in the same direction, towards the south, so he and his team of researchers investigated further. Measuring 256 trees across five continents on a range of latitudes, they found that wherever they were,…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 445

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