Trees are a fascinating species on Earth. Unlike other creatures, trees can live for thousands of years. The oldest tree on record lived for over five thousand years. They are amongst the oldest living creatures on the entire planet. We know that trees are alive because they use energy to create their own energy. Even though they lack the organs that creatures like mammals have, trees still have their own set of unique organs.
Have you ever wondered if it is possible for a tree to have a heartbeat? A tree may not have a heart, but the concept of it having its own beat and rhythm is not as far-fetched as you may think. According to new study, trees have a special type of beat in their bodies similar to that of heartbeat.
This study was headed by Andras’ Zlinszky, Bence Molnar and Andres Barfod from Hungary and Denmark. They used advanced monitoring techniques known as “terrestrial laser scanning” to survey the movement of twenty-two different types of trees. The investigation on trees revealed that while trees sleep at night they routinely have beats pulsate throughout their body.
These pulses are the tree distributing water throughout its body, similar to the way a heart pumps blood through the body. This could change the way that we study and look at trees, as it had long been assumed that trees distribute water via osmosis – a spontaneous movement of water through the roots and moving upward through the inner bark’s xylem. The heart beat occur very slowly in between one another with some of them taking hours to repeat, it is slow and gentle that it cannot be seen with the naked human eye. Truly the Nature is Amazing!
The study also revealed that it turns out that trees move a lot more that people initially thought. It turns out that numerous species of trees dropped their leaves down up to ten centimeters after the sun goes down. This is because the trees are sleeping and entering their own type of circadian rhythm known as circadian leaf movements.
With as much as the study revealed to scientists, there are still much that we do not understand. For example, it is still unknown how the heartbeat and water pump fully work. More research is required in order to fully understand what is happening.
Who knows what else we’ll discover about the world of trees and plant life? Recent research proved that plants and trees have the capability to feel pain and cry out in agony when being harmed. Up until then, we all thought that plants and trees couldn’t feel pain. It just goes to show how little how little we actually know everything.
Source: Healthy Holistic Living: Tree have a “heartbeat” scientist discover