« Katrina Disses Upper Cumberland | Main | Do Something »
August 30, 2005
How do the trees know?
In all the news coverage prior to Hurricane Katrina's arrival, I saw a little clip about a small village in Louisiana and their preparation for the storm. One of the men in the interview mentioned the oak trees, and how they watch them for signs of a hurricane. Their local lore says that if the trees have no acorns, then a hurricane is coming, and of course, the trees had no acorns on them prior to Katrina.
This fascinates me, I know nothing of trees, or their internal reproductive mechanisms, but how do the trees know that a hurricane will hit far enough in advance to not put out acorns, and what is their reason for not putting out acorns? What would it matter if it had acorns on it when a massive storm hit? I can see that whatever seeds were put out would likely be swept away and never planted, but does it have an effect on the tree itself? Does holding back give the tree some evolutionary advantage? Who noticed that trees don't make acorns prior to hurricanes? What other natural meteorlogical phenomenon are there? Can these storms be predicted before they ever appear on the radar? Could we project their paths by looking at nature instead of computer models? Is nature more accurate than a computer model? (My apologies to all you geeks out there.) Do trees further inland also follow these same phenomena, or do they only apply to costal regions? Imagine the possibilities, what do the trees know?
Posted by Anna at August 30, 2005 2:35 PM
Comments
I was down there recently and they still haven't fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina. I don't know if they ever will.
Posted by: Cool Springs Tennessee at March 23, 2010 11:21 AM