Why don t hollow old trees die?

We know that trees grow thick and thick every year, and the wood in the middle of the trunk may gradually die and die because it is less and less easy to get oxygen and nutrients.

If there is a lack of waterproof and antiseptic substances such as "wood pigment", once it is invaded by bacteria, or soaked in rainwater from the wound of the trunk, it will gradually rot over time.

When it grows, it will cause the trunk to hollow. Some trees are particularly prone to hollowing, such as willows. In Africa, there is also a case of the Tomainai people there.

Dead, prevailing "living tree burial."

They dug a large hole in the trunk of the tree and placed the corpse, wrapped in cloth, upright in the hollow. They think dead.

The human will remain alive forever like the tree, and the tree will actually let the hole heal in a few years. After all, trunk hollowing is not fatal to the tree itself.

Injure. There are two busy transportation routes in the body of the tree, and they rely on them to transport the materials needed for life activities. Xylem of the trunk.

It is a bottom-up transport line that absorbs water and inorganic matter from the roots.

Sent to the leaf, the phloem in the cortex.

It is a top-down transport line that takes the leaves to produce organic nutrients.

Transported to the roots, these two transport lines are too numerous to count on a single tree, so as long as they are not all destroyed, the transport can still be carried out, and the heart of the tree is empty, but hollow.

It is only a part of the xylem of the trunk, and the life activity of the tree can still continue.

However, if the bark is stripped away, the nutrient transport channels are cut off, and the roots will starve to death without nutrients. As soon as the roots die, the branches and leaves will be gained.

If you don't get water, it will wilt. As the saying goes, "Trees are afraid of peeling", and this is the truth.

Why can old trees survive hollow?

1. The hollowness of old trees is not due to the original intention of trees, but mainly caused by external factors. As the trunk thickens every year, the wood in the middle of the trunk may gradually die due to the difficulty of obtaining oxygen and nutrients, and the heartwood of the old tree will lose its function. If this dead tissue lacks waterproof and preservative substances such as "wood pigment", once it is invaded by bacteria or seeps into the rainwater from the wound in the trunk, it will gradually decay, causing the trunk to hollow over time.

Some tree species are particularly susceptible to hollowing, such as the old willow.

2. When the trunk is hollow, why are the trees still alive? This is because trunk hollowness is not a fatal injury to trees. There are two busy transportation lines in the body of the tree, and the materials needed for life activities rely on them to be transported to various departments in an orderly manner.

The xylem is a bottom-up transport line that transports the water and inorganic substances absorbed by the roots to the leaves. The phloem in the cortex is a top-down transport line that transports organic nutrients, the products made from the leaves, to the roots. Both of these lines are multi-pipeline, and on a single tree, there are too many pipes to count, so as long as the whole line does not collapse, the transportation can still be carried out. Although the trunk is hollow, it is only the heartwood part of the xylem, and the sapwood is still good, and the transportation is not completely interrupted, so the hollow old tree still grows and develops as usual.

There is an old jujube tree in Shandong that is hundreds of years old, and the hollow trunk can accommodate a person to shelter from the rain, and the jujube tree still bears fruit every year!

3. However, if you peel off all (not part) of the bark of the hollow old tree, the problem is serious: the plant will die soon. This is because the channels for transporting nutrients are all cut off, and the roots are "starved to death" without nutrients.

When the roots die, the branches and leaves will die without water. There is a commonly used Chinese medicine, called Eucommia, the medicinal parts are the bark and leaves, if you want to collect more medicine, peel off all the bark of the trunk, the result is to take the bark and kill the tree, do the stupid thing of killing chickens and eggs. "Trees are afraid of peeling", as the saying goes, is not bad at all!

Because plants usually rely on chemicals to defend themselves against microorganisms or animals. For trees that grow new leaves and shoots and drop old leaves and branches, it may not be an economical option to protect the heart of the tree in the same way that it protects young leaves and twigs.

For larger trees, the outer bark of the trunk is usually alive to transport water and minerals, and it usually takes 5%-13% of the energy obtained by photosynthesis to maintain the peripheral bark of the tree every year.

In order to conserve energy, many trees have died, and it neither stores energy nor transmits matter. Therefore, once the core of the tree is formed, the chemical defenses cannot be renewed, so the resistance is reduced. Tree cores that lack chemical renewal are naturally susceptible to fungal and animal erosion, creating hollow trees.

Why can old trees survive hollow?

Because hollow trunks are not a fatal injury to trees. There are two busy transport lines in the tree: * The plasma is a bottom-up transport line * The phloem in the cortex is a top-down transport line Both of these transport lines are multi-pipe transport lines, and on a tree, these pipes are too many to count, so as long as the whole line does not collapse, the transport can still be carried as usual